I like that! and agree wholeheartedly.
On Dec 14, 2015, at 8:20 PM, Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender
"rogerbailey81" for DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Indeed, we do not and cannot know it all, but that does not mean that we
should strive to know even less.
On 12/14/2015 8:07 AM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:
You make my point which is we are quite young as a species.
Dinasaurs domenated this planet for millions of years. Our species by even
the most genours estimates hasn't even existed for a million years.
All I'm saying here is we are youngsters and we shouldn't think we know it
all for we clearly do not.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender
"rogerbailey81" for DMARC)" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2015 10:06 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] ‘Lesser-evil’ politics from Trump to
Sanders
The youngest Neanderthal fossil has actually been dated to about thirty
thousand years old. Anyway, time is relative. The age of the universe as
far as can be determined so far is about twelve to thirteen billion years.
That really makes human history look infinitesimal. The Earth is about four
and a half billion years old and still human history is less than a blink
in comparison. It is estimated that the homo sapiens species finally
reached the stage of being homo sapiens about 150 to 200 thousand years
ago, but did human history start then? Well, history is usually defined as
something that has been written down and in that case history is only a
miniscule part of that maximum of 200 thousand years. But archaeology and
physical anthropology are uncovering more and more about the prehistoric
state and in that sense human history is being pushed back further and
further. However, even in the few thousand years that written records have
existed many lifetimes have passed. Who is the oldest person you have ever
known? Let me suppose that it is a person a hundred years old because that
is a very advanced age and it is an easy number to calculate with too. In
that case about fifty of those lifetimes have passed since the invention of
writing. I am choosing a number that represents something very close to the
upper limits of a lifetime, but since it is so rare that anyone actually
makes it to that age the number of generations that have passed since that
time is considerably higher. Add that to the fact that at any time in that
span of time many millions of people were in existence carrying out the
cultural activities of their own cultures and the number of cultures are
myriad too. What it amounts to is that even though the time span we are
talking about is miniscule from some perspectives it is still plenty long
enough for a lot of things to have happened and for patterns to emerge. So
it is still possible to determine that history progresses according to
certain patterns from which laws of history can be inferred.
On 12/12/2015 8:54 AM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:
I'm not drawing a straw man here. But, that said, I accept your
explanation and it is quite logical.
By the way I did digress somewhat as you point out here. Sorry it is my
nature.
Regardless, we both agree that Marx was brilliant, inciteful, and so
forth, but he also was, like all human beings flawed in his thinking as
well.
I have read your other comments and there is no need to revisit them here.
Except perhaps to restate that in my studies of human history things are
not so linear, but rather often circular patterns of various progressions,
or advancments, and regressions.
Shit in actual human history, which isn't that old by the way we almost
became extinct as a species about 70,000 years ago when the homo sapien
species was as low as 10,000 due to climatic changes and other events.
That does not include by the way the Neanderthal population which did
exist until roughly 40,0000 years ago but which went to extinction except
that in our fragmented DNA history there are some remnents left withing
about five percent of us to this very day.
Oh well again I am digressing.
But, for such a remarkable species we are quite short sighted even about
our own short history on this planet.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender
"rogerbailey81" for DMARC)" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 9:49 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE:
[blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy]
‘Lesser-evil’ politics from Trump to Sanders
Well, no one has perfect understanding of human existence and matters of
political and economic matters and that includes me and that includes
Karl Marx. However, I have noticed that most often when someone claims to
see holes in Marxism or that they can refute it they then attack a straw
man. That is, they claim that Marx said something that he never said and
proceed to refute it. I suppose they might be refuting something, but if
they are going to claim to refute Marx then they really should stick to
refuting Marx. Just look at how many times on this list that it happens.
I can explain something over and over and then I am attacked for it by
being told that I said something I did not say and that is often right
after I have said it. Anyway, if I understand you correctly you finished
your comment by asking me to prove the nonexistence of god. Well, I can't
do that and I have explained on this list over and over that the proof of
a negative proposition is completely unnecessary to the assumption of the
negative proposition. If you are given any proposition there is a way of
phrasing it so that it is stated to be true or untrue. For the most part
there is only one way that a proposition can be true and even if there
are multiple ways that it can be true there are an infinite number of
ways that it can be untrue. That means that if there is no evidence one
way or another the assumption that the proposition is untrue is
infinitely a safer assumption than the assumption that the proposition is
true. That is, the statement that there is no god is only an assumption,
but it is as valid an assumption as any assumption can be until those who
make the claim of the positive assumption that there is a god come up
with some kind of evidence for their proposition.
On 12/11/2015 9:14 PM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:
And I too am an "self taught type.\, an audo-didactic.
I do not impune your knolege base here Rodger. I impune your conclusions
clearly here.
Moreover, I impune the conclusions of Karl Marx himself!!!
This does not mean, and I'll repeat this for empasis...This does not
mean I have personally every bit of understanding about human existence
and politically and economic understanding. For I would never claim such
a thing in the least!
It does mean that as far as I'm concerned and as I've demonstrated over
and over again the Marxist-Leninist paradigm is full of numerous holes.
Some as born out by the science we both love and respect are born out
for Marx lived in a world before our wonderful scientific achivements
including DNA etc.
If you, Roger, must insist upone the one hand that scientic method must
be the be-all and end-all ( which by the by the by I a grree with) and
on the other hand mus agree with a Marxian construct of the universe
which is out of sorts with that ssientific method itself then how can I
agree in conscience or design sir?
Is MMarxist-Leninisim some sort of religion that is a matter of doctrine
of faith; or is it to be put before the same extracting standing and
rigors of the scientific method itself if it and its conclusions are to
be valid and...most importantly TRUE?
Ok, now let me dispense with the scientific B.S.
Let me talk the talk of the average folk here.
So Marxxist'Lenistist talk about amonst other things the denial of God
and about lots of stuff in this vein.
OK, I can dig that. I've got more than my doubts about everything. So
here I challenge you to prove your points sir.
(By the way being agnostic I offer no proofs here nor detractions, but
will be more than amused with the dialogue between ""belivers" if
sincere or even revealing.)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender
"rogerbailey81" for DMARC)" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 8:50 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy]
Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE:
[blind-democracy] ‘Lesser-evil’ politics from Trump to Sanders
It seems like I have discussed the uneven progression of history on
this list before. In fact, I am pretty certain of it. But alas, I find
myself being lectured to again as if I am the one who does not know
what I am talking about despite the fact that I have been autodidactly
studying these things for about forty-three to forty-four years now.
On 12/11/2015 8:36 PM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:
In many segments of the advance of history and the devolution of same;
and most especially after the utter collapses of the Roman (Western)
Empire there was not a clear delineation between that empire and
feudalism , There were various ebbs and flows and various advances and
denigrations..
Moreover, your paradigm is an European sencrincts one for during the
time where the Western Roman Empire declined and while western Europe
disintegrated there was in fact a ffliourishment of enlightened and
scientific advancement and that was in fact as many on this list
denote during the "Islamic Renaissance" ....
For except for pockets in perhaps the Celtic States of the Irish circa
600 or so A.do. where was the literature orundestanging of ancient
learning held except in the enlightened Persian, Arabic, and Berber
states? All for the sake of Abdullah here were nominally Islamic here.
All kept Aristotle alive, let alone other ancient Greek thinkers.
So, most, or not, without the Muslims what we know of or western
civilization would not exist today including what we know as the
"Scientific method".
Nothing about us is developed in a vacuum.
We are all culpable in infamy and we all are contributed for in
advancement by each other.
And again it is a demonstrable fact of archeology and historiography
that each and every of us survivors upon this planet that call
ourselves human came out of one place originally. The place? Africa!
All homo sapiens cam from original place. All of us. You, me, and the
man behind the tree.
And new DNA evidence shows than the one to two percent of us who have
the remnants of DNA from our lass renaming brothers and sisters in our
ancestral tree also came from Africa. That being our of mistletoe
Neanderathrial brethren other words the race thing is an absolute
myth. For we are all the same beings. We are all human beings and as
so we are all equally endowed by the creation of us.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted
sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 3:40 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy]
Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] ‘Lesser-evil’ politics
from Trump to Sanders
It was followed by feudalism though. Do you think that the Roman Empire
was immune to the laws of history? If so, then what do you call the
economic system that replaced it if not feudalism?
On 12/11/2015 3:31 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
I don't know about the laws of history, but I do know about the
political character of the US population
And I also know that climate change is moving at such a rate that its
consequences will eliminate human life unless immediate changes take
place in how we live. I don't see the US moving toward socialism.
When the Roman empire imploded, it wasn't followed by peace and
equality throughout the world.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger
Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 3:04 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE:
[blind-democracy] ‘Lesser-evil’ politics from Trump to Sanders
Can you think of any reason that the US would be immune to the laws
of history?
On 12/11/2015 11:30 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Aside from a few mis statements, this is a pretty good summary of
the situation. The problem is, I feel like it leaves us nowhere.
Does the Socialist Workers' Party or any other socialist of
communist party actually think that there can be a socialist
revolution in the US? I suppose that hope springs eternal for some
folks.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger
Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 10:19 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] ‘Lesser-evil’ politics from Trump to
Sanders
http://socialistaction.org/
‘Lesser-evil’ politics from Trump to Sanders
Published December 10, 2015. | By Socialist Action.
Sasha Murphy, of the ANSWER Coalition, leads demonstrators in a
chant during a protest against Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump's hosting "Saturday Night Live" in New York, Saturday,
Nov. 7, 2015. Despite a 40-year history of lampooning politicians
while inviting some to mock themselves as on-air guests, booking a
presidential candidate to host the NBC sketch-comedy show is almost
unprecedented.
(AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
Sasha Murphy, of the ANSWER Coalition, leads demonstrators in a
chant during a protest against Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump's hosting "Saturday Night Live" in New York, Saturday,
Nov. 7, 2015. Despite a 40-year history of lampooning politicians
while inviting some to mock themselves as on-air guests, booking a
presidential candidate to host the NBC sketch-comedy show is almost
unprecedented.
(AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
By JEFF MACKLER
That the leading Republican Party presidential candidate,
multi-billionaire Donald Trump, is a full-blown reactionary
caricature of a capitalist politician is now the common parlance of
most major media outlets. Even the relatively conservative
Washington Post featured a Dec. 1 Dana Milibank column entitled,
“Donald Trump Racist Bigot.”
Milibank, reflecting the general unease at Trump’s virulently
racist, misogynist, and xenophobic outbursts, wrote: “Let’s not
mince words:
Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist. … There is a great imperative
not to be silent in the face of demagoguery. Trump in this campaign
has gone after African Americans, immigrants, Latinos, Asians, women,
Muslims and now the disabled…
“It might be possible to explain away any one of Trump’s outrages as
a mistake or a misunderstanding. But at some point you’re not merely
saying things that could be construed as bigoted: You are a bigot.
“It has been more than a quarter century since Trump took out ads in
New York newspapers calling for the death penalty for “criminals of
every age” after five black and Latino teens were implicated in the
Central Park jogger case. The young men, convicted and imprisoned,
were later cleared by DNA evidence and the confession of a serial
rapist—and Trump called their wrongful-conviction settlement a
‘disgrace.’”
“Since then,” Milibank continued, “Trump led the ‘birther’ movement
challenging President Obama’s standing as a natural-born American;
used various vulgar expressions to refer to women; spoke of Mexico
sending rapists and other criminals across the border; called for
rounding up and deporting 11 million illegal immigrants; had
high-profile spats with prominent Latino journalists and news
outlets; mocked Asian accents; let stand a charge made in his
presence that Obama is a Muslim and that Muslims are a ‘problem’ in
America; embraced the notion of forcing Muslims to register in a
database; falsely claimed thousands of Muslims celebrated the 9/11
attacks in New Jersey; tweeted bogus statistics asserting that most
killings of whites are done by blacks; approved of the roughing up
of a black demonstrator at one of his events; and publicly mocked
the [physical] movements of New York Times (and former Washington
Post) journalist Serge Kovaleski, who has a chronic condition
limiting mobility.”
What is perhaps a bit different in today’s virtually year-round
election hyperbole is the fact that virtually every one of the dozen
or so Republican presidential contenders have remained all but
silent as Trump daily spews out his noxious diatribes. Indeed, until
quite recently, most of the corporate media relished covering
Trump’s every anti-social rant, fearful perhaps that failure to do
so might lose them critical media ratings.
Trump himself has repeatedly affirmed that any coverage, especially
free media coverage—and to date he has by far had the lion’s share
of the latter—could only work to his advantage.
On Nov. 8, Trump delighted in the opportunity to appear on the
popular “Saturday Night Live” television show, where wacked-out
comedian Larry David, who plays the part of an obnoxious liberal
racist on his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” show, took up
DeportRacism.com’s offer of a $5000 prize to publicly heckle Trump
and call him a racist. David, who has yet to collect his winnings,
did just that—with Trump’s explicit and prior, if not enthusiastic,
agreement. In capitalist America today, a real live, laughing,
racist billionaire is a profitable talent to broadcast!
Meanwhile, the front-running Trump has a dozen Republican
challengers, including the second in the polls—retired surgeon,
Christian fundamentalist, and climate and evolution denier Ben
Carson. All afford Trump virtually free rein in his fear and
hate-mongering campaign, with a few occasionally and cautiously
seizing the opportunity to one-up this racist bigot in order to
better capture an ever greater portion of the Republican Party’s
alienated, largely middle-class, Tea Party-enthusiast voter base.
No doubt Trump’s rants find fertile soil in a small layer of the
overall electorate, but even less in the general population, some
half of which increasingly does not bother to vote.
But Trump’s backwater histrionics are not new to the increasingly
polarized and crisis-ridden world capitalist scene. Overtly
far-right, if not neo-fascist, views are similarly expressed in
France, England, and across Europe. In the former two nations such
right-wing parties have, for the first time in nearly a century,
outpolled the traditional capitalist stalwart parties of the status
quo.
Trump is the American reflection of overtly racist and neo-fascist
ideology— if not a conscious experiment with it. His racist rants in
some instances have encouraged the use of violent physical attacks
by his disaffected followers, who find his scapegoating of the
oppressed to their liking.
Democratic Party charade
On the Democratic Party side of capitalism’s electoral charade, this
ruling-class party’s lead candidates take the opposite tack,
portraying themselves as the font of progressive values.
In their first nationally televised debate, all five of the original
Democratic Party contenders, led by “socialist” Bernie Sanders and
matched by Hillary Clinton, enthusiastically decried the “casino
capitalism” of Wall Street.
Their purported vision of the future society is one in which the U.S.
“returns” to the moral values of its much fantasized “small business”
and “hard-working little man” roots, where prosperity awaits all who
conscientiously put in the effort. References to America’s
slave-labor and robber-baron origins are absent in this scenario.
Given President Obama’s significantly declining poll ratings, none
of the present Democratic Party contenders sought his overt
political support. “Mums the word” with regard to Obama’s record of
leading the nation in implementing each and every corporate assault
against unions, workers, and the poor. None chose to identify with
Obama’s unprecedented corporate largess in the form of
multi-trillion-dollar bailouts to the richest sectors of the U.S.
ruling class.
Rhetoric aside, Sanders’ Democratic Party voting record stands at 98
percent, while Hillary Clinton’s financial support from corporate
America’s giants, as with Obama before her and Bill Clinton earlier,
topped all contributions to her Republican opponents.
We might add that former Secretary of State Clinton backed to the
hilt every imperialist war effort of the Obama administration from
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya to today’s U.S. war efforts in Syria.
Obama’s countless covert and drone wars abroad murdered millions
while stuffing the coffers of the military-industrial complex at
home. But virtually no comment from Bernie or Hillary!
Meanwhile, Obama’s hard-working “legacy” promoters struggle today to
posture the president as a keen environmental advocate, an ally of
immigrant communities, a champion of health care for all, a friend
of the working class, a champion of democratic rights, and a man who
is reluctant to send more troops to fight in the interests of U.S.
imperialism.
Obama has become the media-promoted rational champion of climate
science, currently partaking in the UN-sponsored Paris talks as the
chief “defender” of the earth against the ravages of global warming.
Yet, Obama’s administration holds the modern-day record for
increasing the use of fossil fuels, opening the floodgates to
corporate off-shore drilling, and maintaining the obnoxiously high
government tax breaks for the leading Big Oil polluters.
Obama’s recent squelching of the infamous Keystone XL pipeline
provided his administration a momentary fig leaf of credibility that
immediately vanishes when contrasted to the massive increase of
environmentally destructive pipeline complexes in place or under
construction across the country.
Obama, the “Great Deporter,” with a record two million immigrants
brutally forced out of the country to his credit, gifted $13
trillion in bailouts over the past seven years to the corporate
elite. He presided over the wholesale shredding of civil liberties
(as so ably exposed by the Snowden revelations). His signature
“affordable” health care legislation gifted $3 trillion over the
next 10 years to the private and largely monopolized insurance,
hospital, and pharmaceutical industries—as opposed to a single-payer
alternative that would have saved $1 trillion in government
expenditures over the same period.
A Dec. 5 New York Times article entitled, “Jobs Report Seen as
Strong Enough for Fed Action” [to raise interest rates on today’s
nearly zero-rate “loans” to corporate America] nevertheless revealed
some bitter truths about the Obama administration’s seven-year
record.
“At 62.5 percent,” The Times notes, “the proportion of Americans in
the labor force remains near mid-decade lows. The jobless rate for
African-Americans rose by 0.2 percentage points in November to 9.4
percent, which is more than twice the 4.3 percent for white
Americans.”
“Moreover, The Times adds, “the economy is still 2.8 million jobs
short of where it would have to be to match pre-recession employment
levels while also absorbing new entrants into the workforce. … Even
if the current trend continues, that so-called ‘jobs gap’ will not
be closed until mid-2017.”
Another Dec. 5 New York Times article, “Lawmakers Near Deal on
Billions in Tax Cuts,” notes that the upcoming bipartisan tax-cut
legislation, in almost all cases written behind the scenes and
negotiated secretly by the technocrat specialists of the corporate
elite, amounts to nothing less than a five-year duration transfer of
$840 billion from us to them—from tax-paying working people to the
tax-avoiding richest portion of the one percent that really rules
America.
A general shift to the right
Today’s political/electoral drama, almost always devoid of the
crooked corporate machinations that lead to tax cuts and other perks
for the super-wealthy, can best be summarized: “The Republicans talk
the talk:
the Democrats walk the walk.”
The silky and “progressive”-sounding Democratic Party election-time
jargon is no accident or fluke. It is consciously designed to pose
this wing of the ruling class as the “civilized” representatives of
an egalitarian society that respects, if not cherishes, democratic
and human rights and economic fairness.
Similarly, the Republicans’ election posturing as a racist nut-case
party of almost deranged hate-mongers, climate deniers, and war
hawks is not without its own logic. The extreme verbal political
divergence between Democrats and Republicans lays the foundation for
capitalism’s well-honed election-time lesser-evil scenario, wherein
alienated voters who would more than likely abandon the two-party
shell game—a 60 percent majority favor a new third party, according
to a recent Gallup poll—feel compelled to once again allow
themselves to partake in “choosing”
capitalism’s preferred horse in the race.
The seeming Republican Party scapegoating mania combines well with a
generalized disgust with “establishment” politics, and it allows
Democrats to move ever further to the right. Few doubt that
President Obama and his Democratic Party political, social, and
economic policies are far to the right of the most “evil” Republican
propositions of yesteryear.
This generalized shift to the right of ruling-class politics, and
the associated feigned public disputes, never fail to reach
resolution in the hidden congressional and corporate corridors,
where “compromise”
solutions, always at the expense of the vast majority, are routinely
arrived at.
The chaotic and crisis-ridden capitalist system itself—in a crisis
virtually equal in magnitude to that of the Great Depression of
1929—best accounts for today’s public partisan discord. Different
wings of the ruling elite are today at odds with regard to how much,
how fast, and with what means—mass repression or “friendly”
persuasion—to most effectively advance their common corporate
interests.
Sanders pledges to support any Democrat
It is in this context, where massive disillusionment with and
alienation from “traditional” capitalist parties and politics has
reached new heights, that one can also understand the rise of
long-time registered “independent,” now “socialist,” Bernie Sanders,
as well as the racist social dissident, Donald Trump.
Bernie Sanders is now an official Democrat, having pledged in
advance to support whoever of his party competitors emerges from the
upcoming election primary contests as the winner. In some recent
polls in the early primary states, like New Hampshire and Iowa,
Sanders’ ranking appears to be in the political ballpark—that is, he
could win.
It was perhaps some 50-60 years ago, when I first encountered the
“lesser evil” dichotomy at work—Kennedy vs. Nixon and Johnson (LBJ)
vs.
Barry Goldwater—that I half seriously predicted that the time would
come when the ruling-class elite, when it believed it was necessary
to head off a likely working-class move toward a break with the
capitalist two-party duopoly, would run a “socialist” for president,
under the Democratic Party imprimatur, of course.
That day has arrived, with “Bernie” filling the bill almost
perfectly as today’s central sheepherder of the unwary back into the
Democratic Party fold.
Sanders’ service record on capitalism’s behalf falls well within the
boundaries of ruling-class politics. He supported the Obama
administration’s wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and
Yemen—although he, like most other liberals who feigned opposition
to the Iraq War, including Obama, now claim that this war was a
”mistake.”
The Saddam Hussein government after all, they have been compelled to
admit, never had “weapons of mass destruction.” The U.S. slaughter of
1.5 million Iraqis, we are told with a straight face, was a mistake!
“Socialist” Sanders gave his assent to countless trillion-dollar
military appropriations bills, including all congressional measures
that supported Israel in its genocidal drive to eliminate any
Palestinian presence in their historic homeland.
Thus, campaigning for and organizing mass forces to demand the
immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from every
nation on earth is not within the Sanders campaign’s calculated
political territory. He knows full well that any real socialist
would view U.S.
imperialism’s wars everywhere as nothing less than the extension and
embodiment of U.S. ruling-class policies at home.
Sanders has indeed disappointed some of his liberal and even
“socialist”
supporters today due to his perceived “weakness” on foreign-policy
issues and his failure to unequivocally challenge and condemn the
ever-increasing brutality and police murder of unarmed Blacks. When
confronted with a Black Lives Matter representative who jumped onto
the stage demanding to know where Sanders stood on America’s
deepening racist attacks, the “political revolutionary” was
speechless and quickly exited, leaving the audience stunned. When he
was soon afterward advised that his well-crafted liberal image had
to include a modicum of support to Black rights, he meekly assented,
but only to the point of not significantly interfering with
Clinton’s prior turf “claim” to the Black vote.
Sanders has also made clear that he is not the kind of socialist
that seeks the social ownership of the nation’s wealth and the
establishment of a revolutionary state that once and for all places
society’s means of production and wealth in the hands of and under
the democratic control of those who produce it, in the framework of
a government of the working class and its allies. Sanders’
“socialism,” he insists, includes respect for private
property—operating, perhaps, in a bit more humanely manner.
In short, Sanders, like his “socialist” counterparts in France or in
the Scandinavian countries, seeks a “kinder gentler capitalism.” The
fact that he seeks to emulate Europe’s historically bankrupt
social-democratic capitalist model while these nations are engaged
in supporting all of NATO’s wars and imposing the same, if not
worse, austerity measures against their respective working masses is
not unexpected.
In these troubled times “Bernie,” in fact, perfectly fills
capitalism’s needs for legitimacy. His chatter about the need for a
“political revolution” in the U.S. is subordinate to his
quarter-century service as Vermont’s leading elected
official—unchallenged by the Democratic Party.
His current assignment, for which he will undoubtedly be richly
rewarded down the line, is to corral working-class discontent back
into the capitalist framework and, when the Peter Pan fairy dust has
cleared, to back Hillary Clinton.
Santa is in exile!
There is no Santa Claus on Wall Street, dear friends—neither in the
form of Bernie and Hillary nor charitable gift-giving billionaires
like Gates and Zuckerberg. Indeed, the real Santa likely abandoned
his North Pole abode at the first signs of Industrial Revolution
capitalist-caused global warming.
That once pristine ice-capped area, increasingly barren today, is
the domain of happy Obama’s helpers, including the Chevron
Corporation, which seeks to mine the exposed earth for the very
fossil fuels whose continued use spells doom for all human kind. The
real Santa likely moved his helpers to cities around the world to
join the fight to restore his homeland and ours, and to return to
the people of the earth the opportunity to collectively build a
joyous world, free from those who would irrationally destroy it in
the pursuit of profit.
Another Christmastime hero, a young Jewish rebel who lived a bit
more than 2000 years ago, may have left us with some insightful
words to ponder. “Drive the money changers from the temple,” he
exhorted. Not a bad holiday admonition! Indeed, the socialist
movement of the early 19th century did include followers of Jesus,
who believed that socialism was the modern-day expression of the
teachings of the Lord.
Today’s Marxist revolutionaries base themselves on a qualitatively
grounded or materialist understanding of the roots of capitalist
society’s countless horrors. As the gap narrows between workers’
mounting hatred of the dread consequences of capitalist exploitation
and oppression and their reluctance to enter the fray to challenge
it in all its fundamentals, we will see countless millions of new
and clear-sighted fighters break with all of capitalism’s
ruling-class-based institutions of coercion and control.
That day is not far over the horizon. Today, the conscious
organization of a deeply-rooted mass revolutionary socialist
party—aimed at ending capitalist rule forever and bringing forth a
new world dedicated to advancing the finest yearnings for freedom,
justice, and equality—is Socialist Action’s reason for being. Join
us!
Share this:
Tumblr
Posted in Elections. | Tagged Clinton, Democratic Party,
Republicans, Sanders, Tea Party, Trump.
Get Involved
Join Socialist Action
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Events
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
JAN. 2014 p.1 jpegJAN. 2014 p. 12
Subscribe Today
Subscriptions to the monthly print edition of Socialist Action are
available for the following rates:
- 12 month subscription for $20
- 24 month subscription for $37
- 6 month subscription for $10
Learn More
Email Updates
Enter your email address to subscribe to our free e-mail Socialist
Action Newsletter. Also to receive notifcations of new web posts by
email.
Learn More
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives Select Month December 2015 (4) November 2015 (9)
October 2015 (8) September 2015 (10) August 2015 (7) July 2015
(13) June 2015 (9) May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12) March 2015 (9)
February
2015 (11) January 2015 (10) December 2014 (12) November 2014 (11)
October 2014 (9) September 2014 (6) August 2014 (10) July 2014
(11) June 2014 (10) May 2014 (11) April 2014 (10) March 2014 (9)
February
2014 (11) January 2014 (11) December 2013 (10) November 2013 (11)
October 2013 (17) September 2013 (13) August 2013 (10) July 2013
(11) June 2013 (15) May 2013 (14) April 2013 (14) March 2013 (12)
February 2013 (10) January 2013 (17) December 2012 (7) November
2012
(8) October 2012 (19) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (27) July 2012
(18) June 2012 (3) May 2012 (19) April 2012 (14) March 2012 (17)
February 2012 (19) January 2012 (17) December 2011 (3) November
2011
(33) October 2011 (14) September 2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July
2011 (24) June 2011 (19) May 2011 (19) April 2011 (15) March 2011
(15) February 2011 (16) January 2011 (15) December 2010 (17)
November 2010 (1) October 2010 (6) September 2010 (3) August 2010
(8) July 2010 (7) June 2010 (2) May 2010 (9) April 2010 (3) March
2010 (8) February 2010 (3) January 2010 (9) December 2009 (6)
November 2009
(5) October 2009 (16) September 2009 (3) August 2009 (2) July 2009
(5) June 2009 (2) May 2009 (7) April 2009 (6) March 2009 (16)
February 2009 (9) January 2009 (10) December 2008 (11) November
2008
(8) October 2008 (16) September 2008 (14) August 2008 (18) July
2008
(12) June 2008 (3) May 2008 (2) April 2008 (3) March 2008 (14)
February 2008 (11) January 2008 (11) December 2007 (8) November 2007
(1) July 2007 (1) June 2007 (1) April 2007 (1) March 2007 (1)
February 2007 (3) December 2006 (11) November 2006 (11) October
2006
(13) September 2006 (15) August 2006 (11) July 2006 (12) June 2006
(7) May 2006 (14) April 2006 (6) March 2006 (14) February 2006 (5)
January 2006 (2) December 2005 (9) November 2005 (8) October 2005
(13) September 2005 (12) August 2005 (9) July 2005 (16) June 2005
(16) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (12) March 2005 (14) February 2005
(19) January 2005 (15) December 2004 (14) November 2002 (17)
October
2002 (19) September 2002 (22) August 2002 (21) July 2002 (15) May
2002 (21) April 2002 (21) February 2002 (15) January 2002 (15)
December 2001 (17) October 2001 (24) September 2001 (18) July 2001
(19) June 2001 (18) October 2000 (17) September 2000 (21) August
2000 (19) July 2000 (16) June 2000 (26) May 2000 (21) April 2000
(22) March 2000 (28) February 2000 (18) January 2000 (20) December
1999 (20) November 1999 (26) October 1999 (25) September 1999 (18)
August 1999 (40) July 1999 (38) June 1999 (24) May 1999 (27) April
1999 (25) March 1999 (26) February 1999 (29) January 1999 (24) July
1998 (12) 0 (2)
Learn More
Pamphlets/Books
Socialist Action publishes a wide variety of pamphlets on burning
issues of today such as global warming, women’s liberation, the
Middle
East and other subjects.
Learn More
Socialist Action (U.S.): socialistaction@xxxxxxx | (510) 268-9429
Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste (Canada):
barryaw@xxxxxxxxxx
Copyright © 2015 Socialist Action. All Rights Reserved. Site Design
by
Lucid Digital Designs | Site Utilities
