https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/chapel-hill-news/chn-opinion/article135987178.html
~~ posted for collectivist ~~
Friday, March 12, 2021
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Monday, March 8, 2021
THE SIEGE OF THE CAPITOL: ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROBERT MERCER ~~ Alex Constantine
https://constantinereport.com/the-siege-of-the-capitol-all-roads-lead-to-robert-mercer/
~~ article recommended by dreamjoehill2 and Introduction by dmorista ~~
Friday, March 5, 2021
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Sunday, February 28, 2021
How Poor Black Lives Matter to U.S. Capitalism Today: Reflections on “The New Jim Crow” ~~ Paul Street
https://www.blackagendareport.com/poor_black_lives_matter_to_capitalism_new_jim_crow
The U.S. mass incarceration regime measures Black lives by the value that can be derived from their imprisonment. “The ‘new Jim Crow’ is about disciplining a deindustrialized Black lumpen proletariat and turning it into a largely inert, deindustrialized profit-source whose 'value added' comes mainly from the mere fact of its captive existence.”
Saturday, February 27, 2021
Friday, February 26, 2021
Biden Continues in His Predecessors Time Honored Tradition of Imperialist War Mongering
First US military action under Biden draws criticism
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Yet Another Capitalist Debacle: This Time in Texas ~~ dmorista
Yet Another Capitalist Failure in Texas
~~ Written by dmorista ~~
Retracing Slavery’s Trail of Tears ~~ Edward Ball; Photographs by Wayne Lawrence
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/
~~ posted for Collectivist ~~
America’s forgotten migration – the journeys of a million African-Americans from the tobacco South to the cotton South
Monday, February 22, 2021
Texans exorbitant electricity bills after winter storm and His Lights Stayed on During Texas’ Storm. Now He Owes $16,752
~~ Two related articles posted for dmorista ~~
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Don't blame a lack of education — QAnon proves privileged white people are losing their minds too ~~ AMANDA MARCOTTE
~~ posted for Collectivist ~~
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Limbaugh’s Legacy: Normalizing Hate for Profit ~~ ANTHONY DIMAGGIO
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/19/limbaughs-legacy-normalizing-hate-for-profit/
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Monday, February 15, 2021
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Lets Talk about Sex
http://spunk.org/library/sex/sp001711.html
~~~ Now I have your attention... hehe - The left is about freeing people from exploitation and oppression; having control over lives and work... Control over one's life also needs to include control over our own bodies and sexuality. This is the best part of this article: "We have produced this article to get the juices flowing. We don't want to control or put people's lives on guilt trips, like so many others - we do want to fight for a world where sex, like every other arena of our lives, is healthy, free of unnecessary confusion, and controlled by us, not the powers that be.", newestbeginning ~~~
Saturday, February 13, 2021
“The Pitfalls of Liberalism”, by Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael
(NB note - I would like to draw attention to the fantastic discussion of violence in this piece)
Friday, February 12, 2021
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Monday, February 8, 2021
Thursday, February 4, 2021
GM 1937, Amazon 2021: Which side are you on? ~~ Martha Grevatt
https://www.workers.org/2021/02/54228/
Bessemer, Alabama, sitting on the outskirts of Birmingham and with a population of 26,500 — about 75% African American — has become a central focus for the entire class struggle.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Monday, February 1, 2021
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Against Loving Your Job ~~ Sarah Jaffe
https://inthesetimes.com/article/alienated-labor-capitalism-jobs-work
“We need a politics of time. A political understanding that our lives are ours to do with what we will.”
Alienation in capitalist society ~~ Paul D'Amato
https://socialistworker.org/2003-2/467/467_09_Alienation.php
(From the Meaning of Marxism)
THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.
Friday, January 29, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
The “Essential Worker” Swindle ~~ SARAH LAZARE
How this label is used to justify a social order in which workers are abused, discarded and left to die.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Monday, January 25, 2021
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Fascism ~~ Anaxarchos
Fascism ~~ Written by Anaxarchos (Marxist, labor organizer, writer, researcher)
Saturday, January 23, 2021
US Capitalism’s Decline and Desperate Efforts to Save It [January 2021]. ~~ Richard Wolff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EC1KMfUECw&authuser=0
Essay to support Richard Wolff monthly talk for January, 2021 ~~ Written by dmorista
Friday, January 22, 2021
Developing working-class resistance to fascism ~~ Dianne Mathiowetz
https://www.workers.org/2021/01/54001/
~~ posted for collectivist ~~
These excerpts were taken from the Jan. 14 webinar, “Workers Can Defeat Fascism & Racism,” sponsored by Workers World Party. To view the entire panel discussion, go to tinyurl.com/y25tapr2.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Monday, January 18, 2021
What Life Means to Me ~~ Jack London
https://www.marxists.org/archive/london/revolution/ch13.htm
First introduced to me by an old friend. This resonates to this day.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. on the History of Race and Class
https://vimeo.com/253197998/
~~ posted for collectivist ~~
Sunday, January 17, 2021
In a Crisis, a Compromise Solution Is Worse Than No Solution at All. ~~ Ted Rall
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/12/24/in-a-crisis-a-compromise-solution-is-worse-than-no-solution-at-all/
The raging argument on the left between progressives who argue for radical change and centrists who advocate incrementalism is hardly new. Nearly a century ago, progressive titan and Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette and FDR were often at loggerheads over the same question.
Turn Civil War into Class War ~~ Written by Collectivist
~~ Written by Collectivist ~~
The two major political parties in the U.S. are dominated by plutocrats and therefore should never be trusted. In the final analysis, no matter what is 'officially' pronounced by the DNC or the RNC, the overall policies and practices of both parties serve the domestic and foreign interests of predatory capitalism. Always have.
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Information, Propaganda, and Disinformation. The Battle over control of the Narrative of Jan 6th, 2021 and the Attack on the U.S. Capitol. ~~dmorista
Written exclusively for Leftist Politics, by Dmorista
Classic Case of Crisis Opportunism': Republicans in Three States Introduce Bills Criminalizing Protest in Wake of Capitol Attack ~~Kenny Stancil,
These proposed laws are "aimed at police brutality protests, not right-wing insurrection."
Police advance on demonstrators who are protesting the killing of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Progressives are sounding the alarm that a handful of Republican lawmakers are exploiting the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by an insurrectionist pro-Trump mob to push for anti-protest bills that critics say do not aim to stem the tide of right-wing extremism but instead criminalize dissent by those seeking social change and justice.
In the immediate aftermath of last week's invasion of the halls of Congress, GOP lawmakers in Florida, Mississippi, and Indiana introduced bills that "do not represent new strategies designed specifically to prevent future right-wing insurrections... [but] draw from a set of policies that numerous state legislators introduced [last] summer in order to appear tough on protests against police brutality," The Intercept reported Tuesday.
According to the news outlet:
Florida's and Mississippi's bills in particular represent a new brand of anti-protest laws on steroids, creating penalties for a wide array of activities, from damaging monuments to obstructing traffic. The bills include measures that could encourage harsh law enforcement responses to protests as well as provisions meant to prevent local governments from reducing police funding.
The narrower Indiana bill would broaden the definition of rioting—which the Florida bill did as well—and would criminalize camping at the Indiana state Capitol. The Mississippi bill would also allow the state to strip unemployment benefits from anyone who pleads guilty to participating in disruptive protests.
The Intercept noted that lawmakers are using last week's events as an excuse to build on earlier efforts to penalize left-wing civil disobedience. This is "a renewed push to criminalize certain kinds of dissent," including protests against police violence as well as the fossil fuel industry.
"Civil liberties advocates warn that the three bills are only the tip of the iceberg," The Intercept reported, stressing that the new bills should not be interpreted as straightforward responses to the assault on the Capitol. Instead, the news outlet said, this legislative push is an attempt to "rebrand" previous anti-democratic attempts to crack down on protests, taking advantage of outrage over the right-wing attack on the Capitol to inhibit demonstrations for progressive causes.
"Look closely" at the proposed laws, said Alleen Brown, who co-authored the article with Akela Lacy. "They're aimed at police brutality protests, not right-wing insurrection."
In a critique of what he called the "righteous bipartisan weaponizing of this crisis," journalist Christopher Cook argued on Tuesday in The Progressive that the tools we create in response to the January 6 insurrection "will certainly be used to tamp down mass protest from the left."
"It's easy to see the Trump-incited insurrection as sheer madness fueled by utter falsehoods, not genuine dissent or 'protest,' but that won't keep it from being weaponized to expand the policing of protest throughout the United States," he warned.
In fact, Cook pointed out, Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis "promoted a new bill 'cracking down on Black Lives Matter protests... [on] the same day insurrectionists were storming the Capitol." DeSantis used the riots in Washington, D.C., attended by several neo-Confederates, as a pretext to "make taking down Confederate statues a felony."
"When the acts of sedition spew from toy-soldier white supremacists and venomous self-proclaimed 'patriots' motivated by outright lies," it is easy to call for more surveillance, but "do we wish to... suppress every type of uprising, every act of sedition, no matter the cause or agenda?" Cook asked.
"We must remain vigilantly clear-eyed about protecting the right to nonviolent protest and dissent."
—Christopher Cook, journalist
"As the planet burns, our healthcare system crumbles, and our economy grows more vastly unequal and untenable, there may well be a need for some nonviolent rebellion from the left," Cook concluded. "We must remain vigilantly clear-eyed about protecting the right to nonviolent protest and dissent."
There is considerable overlap between critiques of crisis-driven attempts to criminalize dissent and warnings of the repressive implications of passing new laws targeting "domestic terrorism."
As Common Dreams reported on Monday, progressives say the federal government's failure to crack down on far-right extremists is a matter of insufficient will, not a lack of power. If law enforcement agencies are given an enlarged toolbox, critics say, those weapons will be used to stifle constitutional protections of free speech and the right to air grievances before the state.
Alluding to the significance and fragility of ongoing fights against Enbridge Energy's Line 3 project and against police violence, The Intercept's Ryan Grim noted that enacting "new laws criminalizing protest [and] expanding the definition of what counts as terrorism... [will] make pipeline companies" and Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)—who last summer advocated for invoking the Insurrection Act and deploying the military to quash racial justice demonstrations—"very very happy."
Spencer Ackerman, a reporter at The Daily Beast, on Wednesday spoke with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) about the danger of allowing January 6 to be turned into a "new September 11" that is followed by a punitive curtailment of civil liberties. While the progressive lawmaker has demanded accountability and supports Rep. Jamaal Bowman's (D-N.Y.) efforts to launch an investigation into the right-wing insurrection, she warned against greenlighting an expansion of the national security state.
As "the first woman in Congress to wear a hijab, someone who came to Minnesota as a refugee from Somalia, Omar... embodies everything that people who wear Camp Auschwitz sweatshirts consider the imminent end of America: political power in the hands of a left-wing Black Muslim woman," Ackerman wrote.
He continued:
Trump, who is not incompetent when it comes to demagoguery, fed on a generation of security politics, regnant in both parties, that expressly demonized people like who look and worship like Omar. A rhetorical fixture at his rallies, his supporters would chant send her back. Omar's career shows the promise of American democracy despite such entrenched forces. But it also shows how a War on Terror is reactionary wildfire. Imagine for a moment what the mob would have done if the men who entered the Capitol brandishing zipties had gotten ahold of her...
[And yet,] Rep. Omar, with the weight of all of that on her shoulders, is warning against a domestic War on Terror.
Omar told The Daily Beast that notwithstanding the "traumatizing" nature of last week's events, "we must not give into fear or allow ourselves to be terrorized by those who seek to harm us. The answer is not a broader security structure, or a deeper police state."
"We should not lose sight of our disgust at the double standards employed against white protesters and black ones, or against Muslims and non-Muslims," Omar added. "But at the same time we must resist the very human desire for revenge—to simply see the tools that have oppressed black and brown people expanded."
Friday, January 15, 2021
Thursday, January 14, 2021
'That Is Not Justice!' Outrage as Snyder Hit With Just Two Misdemeanor Counts Over Role in Flint Water Crisis. ~~ Jake Johnson
The charges come as new reporting indicates the former Michigan governor was aware of a Legionnaires' disease outbreak linked to the water crisis months before he acknowledged it in public.
The Police Enabled the Far-Right Mob That Violently Stormed the Capitol Building ~~ Peter Gowan
https://portside.org/2021-01-06/police-enabled-far-right-mob-violently-stormed-capitol-building
The far-right mob that took over the Capitol never would have gotten in if the federal police hadn’t allowed them to storm in. The simple fact is that left-wing protesters get treated with brutality, while right-wing protesters get coddled
Details emerge exposing high-level coordination between fascists, police and Republican politicians ~~Jacob Crosse
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/14/burns-j14.html
~~ posted for dmorista ~~
More details are beginning to emerge confirming that last Wednesday's coup attempt was planned in advance in coordination with Republican officials, Capitol police and fascist sympathizers in the military-intelligence apparatus. At the same time, additional signs that far-right elements are planning a second coup in the lead-up to January 20 underscore the urgent necessity for workers and students to begin preparations for a political general strike.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
New details about January 6 riot reveal need for full-scale investigation ~~ Eric London
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/11/pers-j11.html
~~posted for dmorista ~~
New information in media reports shows that Trump’s January 6 fascistic insurrection had high level support from within the Republican Party and critical sections of the police and military-intelligence apparatus. These revelations raise the need for a full-scale investigation into the plot to overthrow the Constitution and all those involved in it.
Monday, January 11, 2021
America through Nazi Eyes ~~ Omer Aziz
https://portside.org/2021-01-10/america-through-nazi-eyes
~~ posted for collectivist ~~
The most radical Nazis were the most aggressive champions of U.S. law. Where they found the U.S. example lacking, it was because they thought it was too harsh.
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Friday, January 8, 2021
Growing questions about police stand-down in January 6 coup attempt ~~ Jacob Crosse
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/08/coup-j08.html
~~ posted for dmorista ~~
The day after President Donald Trump mounted a fascist insurrection at the US Capitol in an attempt to subvert the Constitution and install himself as dictator, more details are emerging regarding the coconspirators within the police, military and far-right who took part in the insurrection.
The fascist coup of January 6 ~~ David North, WSWS
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/07/pers-j07.html
~~ posted for dmorista ~~
The fascist insurrection in Washington DC—which resulted in the storming of the US Congress, the panicked dispersal of terrified senators and members of the House, the delay of the official validation of Joseph Biden’s Electoral College majority, and even the occupation of the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—is a turning point in the political history of the United States.
Fascist Violence and the Form of the State ~~ Sam Marcy
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/01/07/fascist-violence-and-the-form-of-the-state/
~~ posted for Collectivist ~~
White supremacists stormed the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, brandishing KKK-inspired nooses.
Below is an excerpt from an article by Sam Marcy, a leading Marxist thinker and fighter of the second half of the 20th century. It was written shortly after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1981 — that is, at the beginning of the long period of reaction that is peaking today.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
The Coup in Washington: Why is Anyone Surprised by Trump’s Fascist Politics? ~~ Anthony DiMaggio
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/01/07/the-coup-in-washington-why-is-anyone-surprised-by-trumps-fascist-politics/
~~ posted for collectivist ~~
Photograph Source: DrDannielle – CC BY-SA 4.0
Making Sense of the Terrible Events at the National Capitol Building Yesterday (January 6, 2021) ~~ Dmorista
The dramatic events that occurred at the United States Capitol Building yesterday, January 6, 2021 demonstrate just how far down the path to authoritarian / fascist rule the U.S. has traveled. In fact the latest reports, from Newsweek, are that 4 people died in the events. Some commenters have labeled the actions by the Trumpista Mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol Building as a “coup d'etat”. A more accurate label for the ongoing operations, by Trump and his minions at all levels to overturn the Presidential Election results, would be Auto-Golpe'. In an Auto-Golpe' a head of state and his coterie stay in power, by using tactics similar to those that a cabal of Coup d'etat plotters would use in trying to seize state power. The process of an Auto-Golpe' is often smoother because the head of state already has levers of power available to him/her. Donald J. Trump, while he retains control over many of those levers of power, has encountered significant resistance to his more strident demands from various parts of the U.S. Government apparatus. Most significant in this internal power structure resistance are the repeated statements by the military high command and such figures as the 10 living Secretaries of Defense, that the U.S. military must not and will not directly intervene in American politics to keep Trump in power. (See “All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory”, Jan 3, 2021, Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld, Washington Post, at < https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-former-defense-secretaries-military-peaceful-transfer-of-power/2021/01/03/2a23d52e-4c4d-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html >: “Ten Angry Men: What the Incredible Letter From Former Defense Secretaries Should Tell Americans”, Jan 4, 2021, James Stavridis, Time, at < https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ten-angry-men-incredible-letter-214010429.html >).
UPDATE II: News Reports Refute the Mandatory Optimism Cult's Claim the Nazis Lack Effective Leaders and Organization
By Loren Bliss
THE RATHER FORCEFUL assertion by disciples of the cult of mandatory optimism there is no proof of nationally effective ChristoNazi/Trumpite leadership, organization and solidarity – and that we should therefore stop fearing it and its armed rabble -- is refuted by local and national news reports.
Below we have 22 states in which local media reported Nazi demonstrations obviously coordinated with the assault on the U.S. capitol, plus five more states in which local media suppressed stories of coordinated Nazi violence nevertheless reported by Associated Press.
That’s 27 states total or 27/50, which is 54 percent.
Plus based on these findings and my own 60-odd years’ professional knowledge of such matters, I’d guess local media in at least a dozen more states suppressed reports of Nazi violence due to the protective censorship imposed by chambers of commerce and/or other Ruling Class organizations, as is typical in most less-urbanized states.
So 39/50 – 78 percent – is almost certainly a more accurate estimate.
Which, curiously enough, equals the percentage of the total U.S. Caucasian population proven to be incurably white-supremacist by their responses to post-Katrina polls.
As to the proof itself, firstly there is this from Associated Press: Protesters swarm Statehouses across US; some evacuated .
Next I checked the websites of local newspapers in eight cities, but found all news of the Nazi assaults – local or national – to be censored by paywalls.
Finally I settled on the following, which I assembled by reviewing the websites of at least one major local (non-FOX) TV outlet in every U.S. state capital, a tedious process that took four hours and 52 minutes to complete:
Alabama – https://www.wsfa.com/2021/01/06/trump-supporters-rally-outside-alabama-capitol/
Alaska – none locally reported
Arkansas – https://katv.com/news/local/trump-supporters-rally-at-the-arkansas-state-capitol
California -- https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2021/01/06/sacramento-trump-capitol-sacramento-arrests/
Colorado – none locally reported.
Connecticutt – none locally reported.
Delaware – none locally reported.
Georgia – locally suppressed; reported by AP.
Hawaii – locally suppressed; reported by AP.
Illinois – none locally reported.
Indiana – none locally reported.
Iowa – https://www.kcci.com/article/dozens-of-stop-the-steal-protesters-gathered-at-statehouse/35142662
Kentucky – none locally reported. This Kentucky story from a West Virginia tv news channel:
https://wchstv.com/news/local/member-of-an-eastern-ky-church-in-washington-as-violence-erupts
Louisiana – none locally reported.
Maine – none locally reported.
Maryland – none locally reported.
Massachusetts – none locally reported.
Michigan – https://www.fox47news.com/news/political/protesters-gather-in-lansing-as-lawmakers-certify-election
Minnesota – none locally reported.
Mississippi – none locally reported.
Missouri – none locally reported.
Montana – none locally reported.
Nebraska – none locally reported.
Nevada – locally suppressed; reported by AP .
New Hampshire – none locally reported.
New Jersey – none locally reportedly
New Mexico – https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/armed-trump-supporters-rally-outside-roundhouse-in-santa-fe/5970329/
New York – none locally reported.
North Carolina – https://www.wral.com/a-couple-dozen-for-and-against-president-trump-exchange-words-at-nc-capitol/19460061/
North Dakota – none locally reported.
Ohio – locally suppressed; reported by AP.
Oklahoma – locally suppressed; reported by AP.
Pennsylvania – none locally reported.
Rhode Island – none locally reported.
South Carolina – https://www.wistv.com/2021/01/06/protestors-gather-sc-statehouse-support-stop-steal-movement/
South Dakota – none locally reported.
Tennessee – https://fox17.com/news/local/tennessee-lawmakers-hold-prayer-rally-in-support-of-trump
(Complete with Nazi salutes; see photo.)
Utah – https://fox17.com/news/local/tennessee-lawmakers-hold-prayer-rally-in-support-of-trump;
Also relevant: https://kutv.com/news/local/protestors-gather-at-utah-state-capitol-building
Vermont – https://www.wcax.com/2021/01/06/stop-the-steal-protesters-in-montpelier-call-for-accountability/
Virginia – none locally reported.
Washington – https://www.newsbreak.com/washington/olympia/news/2140060994666/protesters-break-through-gate-of-gov-inslees-home
West Virginia – none locally reported.
Wisconsin – none locally reported.
I
also apologize for the use of full URLs rather than highlighted links;
for a non-Nurd such as I to convert them would have added more than an hour
to the preparation of this report, and in this instance I felt speed
took precedence.
LB/02:32PST 7 Jan 21
-30-
UPDATE: The Ultimate Question Is the Extent to Which the Ruling Class Intends to Exploit This Rebellion as It Did 9/11
...Thus to Complete the Coup They Began 22 November 1963.
By Loren Bliss
I RAISE THIS as the ultimate question because history proves such purposeful atrocities are many -- among the most notable are the Reichstag Fire (which the Nazis manipulated into seizure of absolute power in Weimar Germany), plus of course the original Bloody Sunday -- the massacre organized by a Russian Orthodox Priest named Georgi Gapon.
This "Father Gapon" -- an agent-provocateur for the Okhrana (the Tsar's secret police) -- organized the incident precisely to provide Tsar Nicholas II the excuse for the relentless genocide by which he then exterminated hundreds of thousands of Russian progressives.
Might Trump thus be another Gapon?
LB/18:40 PST 6 Jan 21
-30-
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Though I Have Long Foreseen the Nazi Lynch Mob That's Captured D.C., It Is Not My Preferred Return to Blogging; but the Federal Response Will Damn Sure Tell Us Who We Are
by Loren Bliss
(Originally self-published at Dispatches from Dystopia,https://www.dispatchesfromdystopia.net/2021/01/though-i-have-long-foreseen-the-nazi-lynch-mob-thats-captured-dc-it-is-not-my-preferred-return-to-bl.html)
FOR THE PAST several weeks I have been working on a new, definitively apolitical Dispatches
format essentially based on the Royokan haiku I regard as our species'
best-ever expression of gratitude in the wake of hopelessly ruinous
loss:
The thief
left it behind:
the moon at my window.
But the seizure of our national capital by a Trump-spawned Nazi lynch mob has interrupted that quarantine-enabled growth process, and my own resurgent journalistic ethics demand response:
Because I (involuntarily) lived in the South for most of my first 24 years, I know entirely too well the bottomless, irremediable Evil of our national Southron/Neoconfederate mix of reactionary Christian misogyny, racism and general hatefulness.
Hence despite the constant disinformation from the "Democratic" [sic] Party's cult of mandatory positivism, I have been warning for years of the danger of a ChristoNazi revolution.
Now we are at the inevitable pivot-point wherein the government's response to this (armed?) rabble that has captured D.C. will answer three pivotal questions:
(1) -- the extent to which Trump's ChristoNazis have subverted the military and the police;
(2) -- the extent to which Trump's modern-day Sturmabteilung is organized for actual warfare (commanders, chain of command, training, armament etc.);
(3) -- the extent to which the Ruling Class opposes or supports the continuation of at least a charade of constitutional governance in the imperial United States.
The answers to these three questions determine our future.
But the answer to the first question is already obvious in the alleged "unpreparedness" by which the Capitol Police (and D.C. law enforcement in general) compromised the defense of the Capitol Building.
It is even more outrageously obvious in how the militarized cops are treating these traitorous ChristoNazi insurrectionists with a respectful gentility so notably absent in the murderous violence of their everyday responses to people of color or any of the rest of us on the (real) Left.
The international response to this Nazi insurrection will also be most revealing -- and could indeed be the ultimate factor in determining in its outcome.
LB/16:16 PST 6 Jan 2021
(Auto-complete's misspelling of "capitol" -- weirdly appropriate, given the givens -- corrected at 20:54 PST.)
-30-
The Bezos Earth Fund and the charity of the oligarchs ~~ Shuvu Batta, Tom Carter
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/30/bezo-d30.html
Amidst an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the working class to the billionaires this year, sections of the bourgeoisie have decided to “donate” a small fraction of these ill-gotten gains to philanthropic causes.
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
The economics of laziness ~~ Paul D'Amato
https://socialistworker.org/2007-1/630/630_08_Laziness.php
From the Meaning of Marxism Series
PAUL D'AMATO explains why a socialist society would produce a flowering of universal creativity.
We've Always Had the Money for Medicare for All - We've Just Given It to Corporations Instead ~~ David Sirota
Since 2008, the US has spent $20–35 trillion on corporate bailouts. It’s about the same “unaffordable” amount that Medicare for All has been projected to cost — used for lining corporate pockets instead of providing health care to people who need it.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
More Important than Gold, Water Should Not Be Traded on Wall Street ~~Avexnim Cojti
Two articles on the trading of water...
Friday, January 1, 2021
Escalating Plunder ~~ Robert Brenner
https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii123/articles/robert-brenner-escalating-plunder
~~ posted for dmorista ~~
On 23 march 2020, the Federal Reserve made the historic announcement that, in response to the coronavirus economic crisis, it would provide loans to non-financial corporations in industry and services for the first time since the early 1930s.1 A few days previously, former Fed Chairs Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen had given their imprimatur to this precedent-shattering step.2 Just how huge a cornucopia for big business the authorities had in mind would soon become clear. The Federal Reserve had, for the better part of a century, confined its lending to the us government, purchasing Treasuries and bonds issued by the Government Sponsored Entities (gses)—Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae. The Central Bank had traditionally resisted extending its loan purchases beyond these instruments, not least because buying the debt of specific companies would leave it open to charges of favouritism. At the time of the 2007–08 global financial crisis, however—with the justification that the meltdown threatened the financial sector’s very functioning—then Fed Chair Bernanke consigned such niceties to the dustbin of history, showing in the process why those norms had been established in the first place.3
Trench Warfare - Notes on the 2020 Election ~~ Mike Davis
https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii126/articles/mike-davis-trench-warfare
This article was recommended by dmorista
We assume that times of great social upheaval and human peril produce equally dramatic political reactions: uprisings, counter-revolutions, new deals and civil wars. The one and only thing that most Americans agree about is that we are living in such a time, the greatest national crisis since 1932 or even 1860. Against a background of plague, impeachment, racist violence and unemployment, one party espouses a vision of autocratized government and a return to the happy days of a white Republic. The other offers a sentimental journey back to the multicultural centrism of the Obama years. (Biden’s promise of a ‘new new deal’ was for gullible progressives’ ears only.) Both parties are backward looking, solipsistic and unanchored in economic reality, but the first echoes the darkest side of modern history. The vote, held on a day when more than 100,000 Americans tested positive for covid-19, was supposed to deliver a definitive verdict on Donald Trump. Indeed the President’s increasingly frenetic attempts to delegitimize the election seemed to signal his apprehension of a Democratic landslide. In the event a projected 160 million ballots were mailed in or cast in person, representing the highest turnout rate in 120 years. A stunning judgement was expected.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Georgians Are Starving — And Their Millionaire Senators Refuse to Force a Vote on Aid. ~~ DAVID SIROTA ANDREW PEREZ
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/georgia-kelly-loeffler-david-perdue-covid-relief-bill
Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue could actually force a Senate vote on $2,000 checks for almost two thirds of Georgia households. After all, their state is in the middle of a calamity. Instead, they are issuing belated, meek platitudes.
Solutions: A How-To Guide for Citizens in a Dying Empire ~~ Maxwell
Let me package a "solution" for you in nice and pretty, American-style,
wrapping. All slick and shiny and ready for you to take home.
Monday, December 28, 2020
Dmorista on Covid-19 and Related Matters Can Capitalism Survive? PART 1 ~~ dmorista
This is the first installment of a series of articles that are generally entitled "Dmorista on Covid-19 and Related Matters Can Capitalism Survive?". There will be at least 4 or 5 more installments posted here at Leftist Politics.
Friday, December 25, 2020
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