Blended Purple

The Emerging Market Paradigm

2012-01-29T00:25:00.001-08:00

You know, the one in which the motivated and uncomplaining developing world is contently seeing their living standards rise while the fat and lazy working class of the developed world jealously guards their privileges ?

Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in the India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with led pipes after a wage dispute turned ugly.

The workers were enraged enough to kill president K. C. Chandrashekhar after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police on Thursday. The labor violence occurred in Yanam, a small city in Andra Pradesh state on India’s east coast.(1)

The next Thomas Friedman column about India ?

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1'India Factory Workers Revolt, Kill Company President' - Forbes

5 Year Baltic Dry Index

2012-01-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Showing a deeply depressed global economy.

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Source: 1Bloomberg

Corporate Profit Rate Growth Has Peaked (?)

2012-01-28T15:23:00.000-08:00

From Goldman Sachs (via Zero Hedge).

As a Marxist, I pay attention to this stuff, as do capitalists. Extract away the gibberish about our economic system and it comes down to profits.

Throw in all the extant debt, or fictitious capital, and most likely we are heading into another recession.

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Link

Charter Schools and Extended School Days

2012-01-28T06:45:00.000-08:00

The current idea in the charter school movement is to extend school days, thus making the students study longer and taking them away from their bad environments -- you know -- friends and family.

KIPP, a major charter school company writes :

KIPP teachers are expected to help all students succeed, and they typically work a nine-hour work day during the week, half days on selected Saturdays, and three weeks in the summer.(1)

These increased hours are not accompanied by increased pay, which generally matches the prevailing salary of the area. (i.e is 'competitive', as one will read in KIPP job adverts)

So why would one work many more hours for less pay ? While teachers generally are idealists, one can be an idealist in any academic setting. The bottom line is this model can only function in a highly depressed economy, where there is a large pool of college graduates with high debt and few job prospects.

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1'KIPP FAQ'

The Special Forces, The Private Army of the President

2012-01-25T16:29:00.001-08:00

The Special Forces are being celebrated today as assassins of kidnappers (all guilty, without trial) -- but the celebration is being thrust upon us with a political motive. After all, who could argue against saving a beautiful American woman in distress ? Just ignore what the Special Forces is more and more each day -- a secret, private army of the president, answerable only to him.

All Costs are Labor Costs

2012-01-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

This is what minimizing the Labor Theory of Value will do, a complete ignorance of what constitutes a labor cost.

Regarding the iPhone:

Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.

When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.

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The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said.

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It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone’s expense. Since Apple’s profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward.(1)

I get that direct wage costs are often a small part of a company's budget. But providing engineers at "almost no cost" is also a cost, one born by the State in this case. Engineers have to be educated, fed, and housed, whether the PRC or Apple is paying for it.

Every "inventory" , "transportation", etc. cost in a company's budget can be reduced to a labor cost if one looks far enough back in the chain of origination.

I don't understand the point of this article; it talks about state subsidies and 72 hour work weeks, yet states labor costs are not the issue. Maybe at it's core is an emoting on the desire to kick working class Americans around. Though it's not their fault the myopic U.S. ruling class decided to dismantle is manufacturing base (which albeit is being resurrected through insourcing as the U.S. becomes the cheap labor destination of the OECD).

But in capitalism, no wage is ever low enough. And there is always someone poorer than you, somewhere, who can be exploited.

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1'How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work' - NYT

The Virgin Mary

2012-01-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

The dogma of the Free Market is our modern equivalent to the Immaculate Conception.

China YOY on Sales Growth

2012-01-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

Year on year retails sale in China rose 18.1% in December, 13.8% when adjusted for inflation.

Good God, talk about an economy that is surging. And comparatively little of this is done on credit.

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1'China consumers spend, even as growth eases' - Marketwatch

Brief Thoughts on the Civil War

2012-01-16T23:41:00.000-08:00

The emotional aspect of Leftist political critique is not, in total, a positive thing. And it has a tendency to bleed into some backward political positions, such as an ambiguity over the Civil War (see Howard Zinn). Because we on the Left tend to root for the underdog, this too often translates into a weird support, or waffling in condemnation, of the South. This support is usually camouflaged as saying that the war was unnecessary and that the slaves could have be freed through some repurchase mechanism. (Except, of course, this was tried numerous times and was always rejected.) Therefore, under this 'Left' critique, the Civil War was just a battle between ruling class factions, with the North representing the rapacious Northeast financial elite.

The realty is the South needed slavery, they wanted to expand it, and they were imperialist force with eyes to the Caribbean.

And, it is my opinion that the much reviled Sherman should be celebrated. For what ultimately needed to happen was for the Southern aristocracy to have their back broken. Instead, they were coddled, and Blacks were dealt with another 100 years of state sponsored terror as the Northern armies evaporated. And this reactionary force in American life has never gone away -- the split between right-to-work and closed-shop states is but one manifestation up to the present time.

A Useless Appendage

2012-01-16T23:19:00.000-08:00

Two generations of stagnant wage growth and nearly every tenured American economist thinks the models and intellectual paradigms are basically fine.

And if challenged, they generally will get huffy and talk about how capitalism has led to spectacular growth somewhere else in the world.

Stunning

2012-01-10T02:52:00.001-08:00

Within a few years, China's PPP GDP - the best measure of the total value of goods and services produced by a country's economy - will surpass the U.S. This isn't even in doubt, yet it is something historic and not fully grasped by all political layers in the West. While China's nominal - or exchange rate GDP - remains much lower, it seems to be a truism that nominal GDP is a lagging indicator of economic power. Looking at the countries who move up quickly in PPP GDP rankings and it is a who's who of BRIC-ish types.

China is no longer - if it ever was - a country based on prison factory labor (as Chris Hedges insinuated in his recent Book TV interview). It is no longer a country based upon labor-intensive cheap manufacturing. If anything, the collapse of unions and a 10 year recession have reduced the U.S. to the cheap labor country of the OECD.

Not Elite, Ruling Class

2012-01-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

I think folks on the Left need to avoid the term 'elite' when they mean 'ruling class'. Elite is too fuzzy, and is used by politicians of all stripes to portray a nefarious, but perhaps cloaked, 'other'. Ruling class is far more precise, accurate, and makes one's politics clear.

Americans Love the Notion of Innocence, Not Kids

2012-01-05T05:25:00.000-08:00

Because cops wouldn't have the uninhibited discretion to kill 8th graders with air guns in a society that truly cared about kids. They instead would have a reasonably trained and skilled police force that could the tell the difference between a real gun and a fake. Our cops shoot first, and ask questions - or cover up - later.

We can contrast the cold-blooded nature of the national response to the Brownsville murder with the outrage in regards to the Penn State accusations. Anything to do with sex and the pillage of innocence deservedly turns up the American outrage meter, while anything to do with unwarranted violence is ignored. Especially when the violence is meted out from positions of authority within our police state structure.

Ron Paul, Fraud, II

2012-01-03T18:14:00.001-08:00

I can't fathom how someone who has gone through pregnancy could tolerate a politician like Paul. These fanatical pro-fetus politicians leave no room for the gray area that exists within the possible medical difficulties that can occur during pregnancy. Just because it was smooth for you doesn't mean it is for everyone else, after all, some 20 % of pregnancies result in miscarriage. Taking the pro-fetus position of Ron Paul at face value, this means there should be 'investigations' of all these incidents to disprove negligence. Of course, the pro-fetus position is one of emotion and an avoidance of the impossible logic making up its backbone. It is also antithetical to a message of Liberty, which is no surprise, since the slogan as spouted by Paul is fraudulent at its core.

This is no great revelation, but his continued strength amongst the young and disaffected is a symptom of our discredited political system.

Ron Paul, Fraud

2012-01-02T23:53:00.001-08:00

He believes in liberty unless (among other things) you are pregnant and for whatever reason want to have an abortion.

Polling on Iran

2012-01-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

To those who still believe there is a nascent revolutionary spirit in the American people, please look at the polling on Iran.

NBC/Wall Street Journal:

"If Iran continues with its nuclear research and is close to developing a nuclear weapon, do you believe that the United States should or should not initiate military action to destroy Iran's ability to make nuclear weapons?"

12/2011 Yes:54%, No: 38%

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I get that this is a loaded question, but after Iraq, how can "Yes" even be a consideration ?

And, Americans who would protest a strike on Iran could easily be lumped into Washington's 'providing support for a terrorist entity' category and hauled off for indefinite detention.

The U.S. is an incredibly mean-spirited, self-absorbed country and things aren't getting better.

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1Poll PDF, page 26

Resentment

2011-12-31T00:32:00.000-08:00

This is the leading political force in the U.S. today. The idea that "I" as an individual, or "my family", deserve more. "I" have been wronged by outside forces.

This is not the basis for any type of Left movement, which has to be formed around the idea of solidarity. OWS is not to fault, for the slogan of a 99% versus 1% is a solid one.

But the U.S. has been so successfully riven into various identity factions that the solidarity needed as the foundation for a Left movement will be, in my view, nearly impossible to come by. This view comes from living in all regions of the country and working in about every type of job imaginable. If one spends some time in an OWS encampment, or lives only in a coastal urban metropolis, it is very easy to forget about the rest of this country (representing 90% of U.S. GDP). Just look at the poll numbers for OWS.

Iraq and Cambodia

2011-12-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

While there are differences, the post-collapse outcomes are similar in that the U.S. wiped out the existing government structure, and then was 'surprised' when there was vicious power struggle in the vacuum. For it was the repeated bombing of Cambodia which destabilized and discredited a neutral government and paved the way for the Khmer Rouge. So in terms of Cambodia, the blame for civil war was placed on the KR, in Iraq it will be the supposedly innate violence of the Muslim people. Americans are so historically illiterate that this will pass muster with a vast majority of the population. Again, it is worth repeating a thousand times. The American people do not have a repressed streak of warm-heartedness just waiting to burst forth in a revolutionary flowering. OWS is dead wrong about this. This is a vicious country who still believes for the most part that God made it special and that the rest of the world is inferior and barbaric, and when others do win - it is because of 'cheating'. In this dominant viewpoint, the U.S. made a mistake trying to civil a people in Iraq who are beyond hope. The complacent general ignorance of the U.S. population, and of course our elite, is why decline is baked in - culturally , not to mention politically, reform is impossible. Though it is important for the historical record to show that there were dissidents.

Tuition at Conservatories

2011-12-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

Tuition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is $ 36,500 a year.

The vast majority of people leaving the program teach private lessons that might total $15,000 a year, and play gigs that pay at best $150 a service for a total of less than $15,000 a year. Actually, $30,000 a year might be a success story. A very few win stable gigs with full-time orchestras, theaters or choirs, but we know that is not a blossoming market.

If you're very wealthy, no worries, otherwise the economic model of this and other conservatories makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The leadership and professors of these institutions should understand that the U.S. ruling class (who they try to ingratiate themselves with) is satiated with philistines who see no need to promote a cultural agenda at this time.

The bottom line is that conservatories are doing a grave disservice to the young people they are charged with educating.

Hitchens

2011-12-19T17:25:00.001-08:00

One thing about working in the field of music, you learn to separate the immediate from the historical. And Hitchens is the former. Historically he is irrelevant and will be forgotten within the decade. There is no substance to his work, no overarching theory, no perceptive insights into the human condition or substantial investigation into topics long ignored. Pithy comments rarely hold their weight even over the time-frame of months and yet this is the main of Hitchens' work. He is like most of the intellectuals today who light accomplishments ride easy on the fantastical (and cruel) magic carpet of Empire.

'Clashes' Indicates a Level Battle Ground

2011-12-17T08:08:00.001-08:00

A trained army shooting and beating protesters with some rocks is not a 'clash'. This is state terrorism against its people. But since the US most protect the Egyptian-Israeli 'peace' agreement, and therefore the former's military at any cost, it is portrayed by the New York Times as a 'clash' between two equally misguided, or excited, forces.

The death toll from renewed violence in Egypt’s capital rose overnight as clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters entered a second day on Saturday.

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1'Death Toll Rises From Clashes in Cairo' - New York Times

On the Iraq War

2011-12-16T20:23:00.000-08:00

This recent post by Brad De Long is curious for its lack of empathy for the million or so Iraqi's who had their lives ended prematurely by the war. Is the big problem with the war really the fact that Iran gained a bit more influence, or that the precious national security of the United States was ever-so-slightly damaged ? Internationalism is the only intellectually progressive position to take in today's world.

Yes, getting rid of Saddam Hussein would have been a mitzvah--if we had not replaced him with a chaotic mess that was, for half a decade at least, significantly worse than being ruled by Saddam Hussein.
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Certainly the national security of the United States has been harmed by the adventure. Iran is no longer contained by Iraq. And there are an awful lot more people in the world who have very good reason to hate America.(1)

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1Why were We in Iraq ? - Brad De Long

Occupy Get Criticized by Labor Hacks

2011-12-13T22:13:00.000-08:00

It's pretty much true that the average union official is more concerned with putting in their 20 years and retiring than any sort of commitment to a class struggle. I recall getting laid off in California, and the local union office was equal parts unconcerned, unaware, lazy and incompetent. The labor bureaucracy's role in sabotaging any sort of independent Left can be seen in their criticisms of the Occupy movement actions yesterday.

From Russia, With Love

2011-12-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Russia sold Iran some state of the art radar jammers in October.

Russia has sent a set of mobile radar jammers to Iran and is negotiating future deliveries that Moscow believes do not contravene current United Nations sanctions on the Islamic state's regime, an official said Tuesday.(10/25)

I really doubt that drone just happened to shut down and gently come to rest in Iranian soil all on its own.

Student Debt is Social, not Individual, Problem

2011-12-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

The problem with the student loan debate is it is entirely couched in the individualist cost-benefit paradigm. Nowhere in the mainstream is it acknowledged that a society is healthier (and wealthier) with smarter and more well-rounded people. It's entirely about whether 'x' degree will make an individual richer, or not, and whether the debt is worth 'the risk'. Because we know that all good capitalists take on risk before making their fortunes.
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This Bloomberg article is a good exhibit.

Projection, Much ?

2011-12-07T20:56:00.001-08:00

It's amusing to see Western papers and meritocrats salivating at the coming 'crash' in China or the 'groundswell' of protest against Putin. China's GDP is is doubling every 6 years, or so. And Putin's popularity is just under 50%.

I guess anything is better than looking at the mirror.

The CIA in Iran

2011-12-05T15:44:00.001-08:00

One thing should be stated explicitly. The U.S. secret government, run out of the CIA, is (very, very likely) sponsoring separatist groups in Iran that are deeply involved in terrorist activity.

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1'US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran' - UK Telegraph

This is Your Country

2011-12-04T07:16:00.001-08:00

And no liberal civil rights organization is going to lift a finger. No academic institution is going to lift a finger. Dry rot has reached deep within the U.S. establishment. And the American public pretty much does not care, there is no unrealized revolutionary spirit or even nascent good-heartedness beating below the surface. People at large mostly want to win their lottery ticket, and are perfectly happy to trample as many others as necessary to get it. This was an ugly country in the best of times, and its demise will be exponentially worse -- domestically and internationally.

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1'Yasha Levine Released From Jail, Exposes LAPD’s Appalling Treatment of Detained Occupy LA Protesters…' - The Exiled

Salafists Make An Initial Strong Showing in Egypt

2011-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

The U.S. has to be pleased with the results in Egypt. These religious leaders and their political attaches are mostly very dumb and easy to control. It's why they were unleashed on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. And while 9/11 was a form of 'Blowback', religious-based movements coming out of the Middle East, at least, offer no hope of challenging class relations or the flow of money.

On Calling Oneself a Nerd

2011-12-02T21:15:00.001-08:00

I'm hearing it bantered about with increasing frequency, and don't like it. There is no need to relegate oneself to a ghetto or shy away from the fact that one considers knowledge important. I can't imagine a historical revolutionary ever calling themself a nerd. It's a form of psychological self-neutering.

Whatever Is Decided, It's Always For the Kids...

2011-11-26T16:42:00.000-08:00

The stupidity of our public discourse.

For the first time in three decades, the Dallas Independent School District is considering closing campuses.

"We want to be able to provide the best education for our kids but we also have to be fiscally responsible for our kids," said trustee Nancy Bingham.

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1'DISD proposes closing 11 schools, job cuts possible' WFAA, Dallas

'Competitive Shopping'

2011-11-25T23:00:00.001-08:00

You see, capitalism is a system of winners and losers. To be sure, the losers will whine that the odds were stacked against them - what Mises aptly labeled 'ressentiment'. But, we all have the freedom to make choices, we are 'free to fail'.

So next time, don't be a loser - bring the pepper spray.

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1'Customers hit by pepper spray at Wal-Mart describe scene of chaos' - LA Times

Fewer Crossing the Border

2011-11-25T22:29:00.001-08:00

This chart tells the tale of the decline of the U.S. economy, to me. In fact, it may be one of the better ways to forecast recessions.

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1'Angry Arab News Service'

A Thanksgiving Prayer

2011-11-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

I wonder if the legacy of Burroughs is tainted by the fact he was essentially a trust fund baby. It doesn't matter how and where one grows up, when life's choices are beyond us. But to what degree can we take a person's insights seriously and relate to them to our own when they are getting monthly checks from their parents well into adulthood ?

A Sternly Worded Letter

2011-11-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

From The Board of the Council of UC Faculty Associations:

We are outraged that the administrations of UC campuses are using police brutality to suppress dissent, free speech and peaceful assembly.

We demand that the Chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress non-violent political protests. We hold them responsible for the violence and believe it can only result in an escalation of outrage that holds the potential for even more violence.

They demand, or what ? They hold responsible, how ?

OWS is Not Popular (though more so than Congress)

2011-11-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

The Marist Poll:

How many voters support these two movements (the Tea Party and OWS)? Looking at the Tea Party, 66% of voters do not back the movement while 25% do. Nine percent are unsure.

When it comes to the Occupy Wall Street movement, 60% do not support it while 29% do. 11% of registered voters are unsure.(1)

The Public Policy Poll:

Do you support or oppose the goals of the
Occupy Wall Street movement?
Support ........................................................... 33%
Oppose ........................................................... 45%
Not sure .......................................................... 22%

Do you have a higher opinion of the Occupy
Wall Street movement or the Tea Party
movement?
Occupy Wall St. .............................................. 37%
Tea Party ........................................................ 43%
Not sure .......................................................... 20%

It's likely that a majority of Americans support the police riots we have witnessed over the past month. There is little to suggest that they don't.

Activists need to be clear eyed not just about the folks running this country, but the reactionary condition of the population itself. This condition is not immutable, but it also not something likely to change in the near future, or possibly ever. Revolution is not imminent, nor is any type of progressive shift. Far too many progressive minded people believe in some innate goodness in the American population that is waiting to burst forth. But societies are probably more likely to be reactionary than revolutionary as they become poorer, less able to travel, and less able to attain education.

The Golden Age is Over

2011-11-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

The U.S. is in steep economic decline worldwide and almost entirely projects its power through military force. China's FDI in Asia and Africa dwarfs that of the U.S., and it is competing strongly even in Latin America. The general belief in the ruling class is that the U.S. can only compete globally by impoverishing the domestic workforce and destroying any vestige of the New Deal. They are fully committed to this project, in what for them is an existential crisis. China's PPP GDP will overtake the U.S. in a matter of years, and the number of billionaires is fast approaching American quantities as well. And I only mention China because it is the most tangible expression of the incredible collapse of U.S. economic power. We are entering dangerous times and there should be no doubt that compromise is off the table as far the U.S. ruling class is concerned.

A Love of Blood

2011-11-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

The New York Times' blog of today's OWS protests is satiated in blood. They must have a half-dozen pictures of a guy who was beaten bloody by the cops. All of which is an argument in favor of non-violence. The ruling class wants to create and portray an atmosphere of siege as way to marginalize the movement. Again, our rulers are deeply sick human beings who love violence and know how to respond to it. It maybe all they know how to respond to.

U.S. and Shanghai PISA results

2011-11-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

I wonder what educational professionals are making of Shanghai's "shocking" PISA test results published earlier this year. And while Shanghai is not representative of China, it is not lacking in poor people. The U.S. educational system is a disaster, and the people running it are mostly ignorant, anti-intellectual and lack a shred of creativity. Their view of education is as a derivation of force feeding or perhaps a kindler gentler version of waterboarding. Anyhow, there's simply no one way for the U.S. to remain the "indispensable" nation if it continues to rely on imported talent, because the rest of the world is increasingly a pleasant place to stay.

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1'Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators' - New York Times

"Charities"

2011-11-15T01:49:00.000-08:00

For many years, that enthusiasm took public form in his work with the Second Mile, a charity to benefit needy children that Sandusky started in 1977. On Sunday, Jack Raykovitz, the chief executive of the foundation for 28 years, resigned. Raykovitz’s failure to do more to stop Sandusky has been a focal point of criticism. ....Raykovitz made $132,923 from the Second Mile during the calendar year that ended Aug. 31, 2010, according to its tax forms.

That kind of money for a regional charity ? What an obscenity. Non-profits should be abolished, the concept has become a scam.

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1'Ex-Coach Denies Charges Amid New Accusations' - NYT

Obama Says Americans are Lazy

2011-11-13T09:56:00.001-08:00

Actually, the empirical fact is that Americans work far more, in terms of wage labor, than 20 years ago. And a scolding coming from Obama, someone who was gifted his opportunities in life, is a bit rich.

We should realize this is how the ruling class and their lackeys (including the president) think. They are deeply despicable people.

Population Control and Nick Kristof

2011-11-05T22:05:00.001-07:00

There is no correlation between population density and poverty. If anything, there is a negative correlation. Look at the population density of Western Europe and Japan as compared with Africa.

People like Nick Kristof who moan on about overpopulation are mostly just afraid of a world with many more black and dark brown people. The underlying assumption is that they are a burden on the charity of white folks (like Kristof).

OWS Popular Support in Decline

2011-11-04T23:14:00.001-07:00

There are several polls out in the last week which show more Americans disapprove of OWS than approve. That there is even a question of support shows the reactionary nature of the US population and a big part of why working class living standards will continue to erode. Without a concept of class resistance and solidarity life is but a lottery ticket, yes some will win, but the vast majority won't. We can complain about the greedy ruling class, but they are doing what they do. What else can one expect of a ruling class in capitalism but a bunch of rapacious jackals ? At some point the American public bought into the idea of exceptionalism, and there is absolutely no reason to expect a Left turn in this country on economic matters. For all these reasons, the U.S. is finished. It's over. We are a Rome in decline.

Lying About Scott Olsen

2011-10-30T12:57:00.001-07:00

According to the USA Today:

A 24-year-old Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, Scott Olsen, suffered a skull fracture when a projectile struck his head. His family is with him at Highland Hospital where he is recovering, hospital spokesman Curt Olson said.

No, actually he was shot by a cop while peacefully protesting.

This country should be shut down now, beginning with the universities.

Italy and the Euro

2011-10-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Italy could leave the Euro much more easily than a Greece or Portugal. Its debt, while large, is 50% domestically owned and its GDP is in the top 10 worldwide. Devaluation would help its still substantial industrial base.

A Debt that Can't Be Repayed, Won't Be

2011-10-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Greeks have launched a wave of civil disobedience against the embattled government's austerity measures designed to appease international creditors, which provided rescue loans to the country.

The latest example of rebellion is the Athens municipality of Nea Ionia, where authorities are urging people not to pay a much reviled new property tax being charged through electricity bills.

"Our constituents can't pay, they don't have the ability to," Nea Ionia mayor Iraklis Gotsis said. "We consider the new tax to be illegal. But in essence, the truth is our people just can't pay."

1'Civil disobedience in Greece grows over austerity' - AP

Oakland

2011-10-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

If We Touch The Pensions The People Will Kill Us

2011-10-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Class resistance makes the elite uneasy in Italy:

But Angelino Alfano, secretary of Mr Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party, said on Tuesday night that an agreement on reform measures had been reached with the Northern League that would hold the coalition together and assure economic growth. Details were not immediately available.

Talks between the coalition parties continued into the night, indicating no substantial agreement on reforms had been reached.

Mr Bossi said later he was pessimistic and dug in his heels over pension changes. “If we touch pensions the people will kill us,” he told reporters.

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Italian government on brink of collapse - FT

Getting Something for Nothing

2011-10-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

The teachers who took the survey were given a list of 15 things that might help to retain the best teachers. Higher salaries ranked 11th on the list, behind benefits like more time for preparation and opportunities for professional development1.

Apparently Bill Gates does not believe the law of self-interest, as he would define it in every other sphere of economic activity, applies to teachers.

Surely if pay doesn't matter, then he and his boadroom buddies would be happy to take massive pay cuts.

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The fact that music and the arts is argued for inclusion in our schools primarily as a way to raise math scores shows you how useless the whole exercise in education 'reform' is.

The Diversity Fetish

2011-10-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

There is a diversity fetish that vexes people on the 'Left' and occasionally finds expression in public debates, for instance when OWS is denounced as 'too white'. But bringing in some materially comfortable 'people of color' hardly represents a real solution, though certainly in the context of the Left's diversity fetish , it would. If one actually lives in the developing world, white folks are far a few between, and the local exploiters are universally 'people of color'. That they are often on the low rung of the international ruling class is not a question of importance. The world's most powerful steel corporation is owned by an Indian consortium based in Luxembourg, whose children very well may attend elite American universities where they would be 'people of color' - in equivalency with a sharecropper from TJ - in the political context of a common 'Leftist' analysis.

The ruling class as long since incorporated diversity into their worldview, and with the planet's billionaires increasingly 'people of color' one would hope the Left could go back to some common sense class analysis. If it doesn't, it will certainly maintain its irrelevancy.

Enough With the Exclamation Points

2011-10-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

If you are bidding for a contract, you do not need to pepper your letter of intro with exclamation points to prove your enthusiasm.

This reliance of emotionalism is very culturally reminiscent of fascism.

The Disgusting Freedom Fighters of Libya

2011-10-20T20:55:00.001-07:00

Killing an unarmed man in vengeance is not noble, it is a lynching. What happened today and over the last weeks in Sirte was barbaric and a war crime.

No wonder the liberals are salivating.

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The only redemption - if one can call it that - will be that these neanderthals will completely run Libya into the ground, they will be incapable of ruling except as weak minded servants of some white men in suits.

Those Who Make Peaceful Revolution Impossible

2011-10-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

"Sadly I think the time has come for blood to be shed. Every time we protest peacefully more cuts are made and they are always at the expense of workers. As one of our great singers said, it's only with fire and knives that men progress. People will have to die if we are going to stop these dreadful policies."

Make no mistake, the military will be called in.

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1'Greece erupts as police clash with thousands marching on parliament- UK Guardian

The Hungry American

2011-10-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

Gallup surveys in China and the U.S. reveal Chinese are struggling less than Americans to put food on their tables.

Six percent of Chinese in 2011 say there have been times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to buy food that they or their family needed, down significantly from 16% in 2008. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans saying they did not have money for food in the previous 12 months more than doubled from 9% in 2008 to 19% in 2011.

But yes, China is posed for a 'hard landing' a 'banking crisis' or any number of troubles that the intellectually bankrupt Western meritocracy and its hangers-on fantasize about.

The Trade Deficit

2011-10-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

Dean Baker says :

...the U.S. is currently running a trade deficit that is equal to 4 percent of GDP and would rise to closer to 6 percent of GDP if the economy were at full employment. This is not sustainable unless we think that countries will give us their products for nothing indefinitely.

Since there is nothing to replace the dollar internationally as a supposed store of value, there is no reason to believe that the U.S.trade deficit will reach equilibrium any time soon. This virtually guarantees the continued decline in the financial condition of the U.S. working class, who have since WW2 functioned as the world's buyer of last resort, the absorber of global overproduction. Therefore, the crisis of 2008 was just a beginning. At some point the US government might very well tell the various SWF's of the world that the 0's on their computer screen are worthless. Default. Capitalism has not resolved its contradictions.

Corporate Greed

2011-10-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

The 99% meme of OWS is far better than the media-shaping going on around corporate greed. Of course corporations are greedy, that's what it take to survive and make money. And the 'fix' for such a problem is more charity - so Bill Gates therefore is part of the solution.

Billionaires can't save us nor should we want them to.

Kristoff Speaks

2011-10-16T00:11:00.000-07:00

It seems to me to be one of the background challenges our economy faces, and it’s an issue of fairness, yet it has received very little attention until recently.

Historic inequality is a 'background issue' ?

The Bill of Rights

2011-10-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

It is almost embarrassingly radical viewed in the context of today's political landscape. The right to peacefully assemble 'shall not be infringed upon' ? Instead we have fascist minded gangsters like Bloomberg 'allowing us' rights within a limited time frame that they bless. Sorry fucker, rights are inalienable - they are not granted by governments, priests, or bosses.

Who is this Slavoj Žižek fellow ?

2011-10-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Speaking at Occupy Wall Street:

Remember: the problem is not corruption or greed. The problem is the system that pushes you to give up. Beware not only of the enemies. But also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process. In the same way you get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without fat. They will try to make this into a harmless moral protest. They think (??? unintelligible). But the reason we are here is that we have enough of the world where to recycle coke cans… ….Starbucks cappuccino. Where 1% goes to the world’s starving children. It is enough to make us feel good. After outsourcing work and torture. After the marriage agencies are now outsourcing even our love life, daily.

So this 'avowed' Leftist believes people shouldn't be able to marry non-Americans ? Or shouldn't have the freedom to choose who they want as their partner regardless of national boundaries ?

The point being if someone feels free to publicly shame, or critique with the implicit aim of censure, a person's personal decision in affairs of the heart, they are totalitarian in mindset.

What a load of sanctimonious prattle most of the intellectual Left is.

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1'Occupy Wall Street'

Republicians and Unemployment

2011-10-06T15:09:00.001-07:00

I have heard many Republicans recently claiming concern about the plight of the unemployed. This is because a Democrat is in office, nothing more or less. It's OK to admit the economy sucks because the other side is supposedly in power.

NYPD and OWS

2011-10-05T20:16:00.001-07:00

Police forces in the U.S. are unaccountable now and this draws a certain personality type. Trying to divide the blue shirts versus the white shirts isn't going to work in the main. Never trust a cop, ever, in or out of uniform.

Ruling Class Lying Coming Fast and Furious

2011-10-01T07:34:00.001-07:00

--A police commander used pepper spray on four women at last weekend's march and a video of the incident went viral on the Internet, angering many protesters who vowed to continue their protests indefinitely.

Police have said pepper spray was a better alternative than night sticks to subdue those blocking traffic.---

Except, you know, the women weren't blocking traffic.

We should just be grateful the president didn't order their assassination.

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1'Wall Street protesters march on police' - AP

Assassinating US Citizens Because They Want To

2011-09-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Someone not charged with a crime, who most likely never committed a serious crime, was assassinated yesterday because the president didn't like him.

FT Speaks in Orwelian Doublespeak

2011-09-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Strikes hamper Greek rescue effort

--

They hate Greece because of its resistance, and extol Ireland and Latvia their for passivity.

Conservatives Remain Confused on What Discrimination Is

2011-09-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

According to conservatives (i.e reactionaries) liberals are now obsessed with Chris Christie's weight. Would liberals joke about a person's skin color, they ask ?

The problem with Christie's weight is the guy is going around yammering about self-restraint and America needing some form of austere discipline. But he can't even pull himself together. Because weight, by and large, is a choice and if one eats obscene amounts of food that's fine. But don't then portray yourself as a modern day Puritan coming to deliver us from our gluttony.

Greece and Latvia

2011-09-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

The 'success' of the Latvian experience with internal devaluation has come because they, as a country, have no class significant class resistance. Greece does.

Without class resistance, there is no stationary point at which the socially necessary wage will be set. It can keep sinking lower, to whatever level private capital deems necessary to restore profitability on their terms.

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1'Bully for the Baltics'- Krugman Blog

The WSJ Pines for a Greek Military Coup ?

2011-09-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Is a military coup likely in Greece? Maybe not. But it’s a possibility that can’t be discounted. And if that were to happen, how happy would the European Union be to have a military dictatorship as part of its club?

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1'Greece: Don’t Discount the Role of the Military' - WSJ

Greece again

2011-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

If Greece goes, then the Eurozone goes and not in long order. Probably the EU project, as well. Greece was admitted to the Eurozone at an early stage, even though no one thought it met the typical economic standards, precisely because of its strategic importance.

Billionaires

2011-09-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

There will be more billionaires in the PRC than the United States about the time the former passes the US in PPP GDP - 2015, or so.

Wildfires as God's Will

2011-09-14T22:31:00.000-07:00

Long before this month's historic wildfires in Texas, the state's forest service came up with a $20.4 million plan to stop the flames from starting or tamp them out before small blazes grew deadly and destructive.

Three years later, the plan is still only half-funded — a result of the weak economy, a strained state budget and what one former lawmaker calls a "dereliction of duty" by legislators who almost always prefer to spend money only after a crisis has unfolded.

The sad thing, far too many people in Texas will not make this connection, but rely on some derivation of the headline.

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1Wildfire protection plan half-funded in Texas - AP

To Serve and Protect

2011-09-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

It's always worth remembering that the cops' first and foremost duty is to protect the rich and their private property. They are not our buddies.

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1ILWU website

If Greece Goes

2011-09-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

Greece is the geo-political soft underbelly of Europe. It is also a historical lynchpin of the European historical 'story' supposedly going back thousands of years and being the first to incorporate democracy. Germany after all is less than 200 years old and can boast of both a raft of important mathematicians and the Holocaust. Much of German history of more frightening rather than inspiring.

More to the point, if Greece exits the Eurozone sphere it will certainly fall under the orbit of another power, perhaps Turkey or more likely, China. The latter already runs the Greek ports, and could utilize them in a monopolistic way to wipe out much of European manufacturing.

In short, the European leadership is being myopic if they think they can just let Greece go and all will be well. But one would expect no less. This is a continent where educated sophisticates can belittle Slavs as 'primitive' (compared to 'Czechs'), or a Southern Italian can be characterized as 'African' - all over Opera and fine Swiss chocolates - leaving an outsider nonplussed (personal experience). For myself, I prefer 'race mixing' and a lot of it.

Briefly about Manufacturing

2011-09-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Despite its goals for manufacturing, the administration lacks an explicit plan for achieving them. “The United States today is alone among industrial powers in not having a strategy or even a procedure for thinking through what must be done when it comes to manufacturing,” says Thomas A. Kochan, an industrial economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Manufacturing's muscle helped make the United States a world power, but its contribution to national income is dwindling.(1)

Manufacturing as a share of GDP is declining in all developed countries, just more quickly in the United States. Wearing the Marxist hat, this is because the capitalist mode of production in the developed world is no longer capable of contributing as much productive growth to the world economy. The key contributor to the flattening decline of manufacturing as a % of GDP globally has been the introduction of China into the global marketplace. It is no surprise that living standards are rising most quickly in this area of the world, for it is here where the bulk of productive growth is occurring. Manufacturing is not just about nostalgia, it is closely associated with the rise of the capitalist mode of production and with it a dramatic, if bifurcated, initial rise in living standards. Marx wasn't exactly against capitalism in the sense liberals might portray. It is another mode of production in humanity's progression and will reach a point where it is no longer capable of driving a productive economy because the profits in those sectors just won't be there. Domestic wages will be 'too high' and domestic markets too saturated. Hence we get 'Wall Street' and the Great Casino.

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1'Is Manufacturing Falling Off the Radar?' - NYT

A Pleasant Editorial from China

2011-09-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Some feel that the factors determining whether or the U.S. sells the F-16 fighters to Taiwan are mainly related to various domestic groups in the U.S., while China's attitude is just a reference. This kind of analysis is incorrect. As long as China's reaction is strong enough, it will make the Untied States suffer a loss that is more than the profit it will gain by selling the F-16 fighters to Taiwan...

According to the analysis, the greatest factor that might motivate the Obama Administration to approve the plan is the 80,000 new jobs opportunities created by the sale of the fighters. Then, what China should do in response is to let the United States lose 80,000 jobs opportunities or even triple the number of jobs. Beijing cannot prevent the U.S. congressmen from voting or stop the White House from signing the contract, but China has the power to make the United States lose 240,000 jobs.

Afterwards, the United States will take vengeance on China. But China could take vengeance on the Untied States once again. Such a nasty trade war has never happened between China and the United States. But it is worthy for China to do it for Taiwan. Whether it is worthy for the United States, they can think of it by themselves.

It appears some anti-big government Texas politicians are braying about the jobs the F-16 contract would create (mostly for Dallas).

In all these debates, its amazing how little the Western leadership and its associated meritocrats - boomers and older - understand how their power has eroded. Both on the right and what little remnants there remain of the left. Yet at this moment the IMF is running off to China, India and Brazil to beg more money to bail out Italy and Spain.

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1'China firmly opposes US sales of F-16s to Taiwan' - People's Daily Online

3rd World Infrastructure Watch

2011-09-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

More than 4 million lose power in major blackout
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But we're still so lucky compared to _____ ( a country poorer than the comparison of last year).

Mitt Romney, 1600 SAT, Harvard Juris Doctor

2011-09-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

Offers this up in 2010:

Recessions do end. The economy recovers. It always has. It always will.

We are ruled by not very insightful people who think they are muy clever.

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1'Romney: GOP will navigate recovery in '12' - Politico

What's the Point of a Contract ?

2011-09-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

If employers, in this case the Post Office, can just abrogate it at any time.

Cutting the work force is more difficult. The agency’s labor contracts have long guaranteed no layoffs to the vast majority of its workers, and management agreed to a new no layoff-clause in a major union contract last May.

But now, faced with what postal officials call “the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy,” the agency is asking Congress to enact legislation that would overturn the job protections and let it lay off 120,000 workers in addition to trimming 100,000 jobs through attrition.

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1'Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount' - NYT

US Solar Wipe Out

2011-09-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

The bankruptcies of three American solar power companies in the last month, including Solyndra of California on Wednesday, have left China’s industry with a dominant sales position — almost three-fifths of the world’s production capacity — and rapidly declining costs.
Some American, Japanese and European solar companies still have a technological edge over Chinese rivals, but seldom a cost advantage, according to industry analysts. (1)

Well yes, the liquidation of rivals through bankruptcy or war is much of what capitalism is about - winners and losers, with the winners absorbing market share and intensifying monopoly power. I'm not sure why I'm supposed to care if 'they' win or 'we' win - a boss is a boss, and surely few would argue that American bosses are more ennobled than Chinese. For most people the crux of the matter is the struggle between workers and bosses, not the eye shape of their boss. It is only a cadre of parasitic upper management types who gain their status through connection, in other words, the New York Times' core target audience, that cares of these internecine bourgeoisie rivalries.

And the riposte from Washington: the Chinese are cheating !

“There is no question that renewable energy companies in the United States feel pressure from China,” said David B. Sandalow, the assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the United States Energy Department. “Many of them say it is cheap capital, not cheap labor, that gives Chinese companies the main competitive advantage.”

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1'China Benefits as U.S. Solar Industry Withers' New York Times

The Libyan 'Revolutionaries' Plot War Crimes

2011-09-01T22:23:00.001-07:00

First, ethnic cleansing, now this.

The rebels, who have been moving troops toward remaining Gadhafi bastions across Libya, had shifted the deadline for the town of Sirte in hopes of avoiding the bloodshed that met their attack on Tripoli.

"We want to save our fighters and not lose a single one in battles with Gadhafi's forces," said Mohammed al-Rajali, a spokesman for the rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi. "In the end, we will get Sirte, even if we have to cut water and electricity" and let NATO pound it with airstrikes.

What a foul bunch of characters these are. They should go on trial with Gaddafi (and Bush, and every American president in recent history), but they won't.

The pathetic analysis and cheerleading of much of the Western Left in this whole affair - and its support for this rogues gallery - illustrates why it has been intellectually smashed by the Right.

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1'Gadhafi, in hiding, vows no surrender in Libya' - AP

Don't Give A Shit About 9/11

2011-09-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I know we have to pretend to and everything. But really, do you care ? It's become a stage managed affair to boost a surveillance state and maintain empire. Like porn, it's been drained of any real emotion.

What is Meant By 'We'

2011-08-31T18:12:00.001-07:00

In reading various critiques, articles and posts, even by those of the Left - there is a tendency to use the word 'we' without fully defining what it means. Yes, when bourgeoisie mouthpieces use the word they are meaning 'we' as in Country, perhaps the U.S., while actually addressing a more select group of the wealthy. But even among trenchant critics of U.S. policy there is a tendency to devolve into the use of 'we' as a representation of Country or some select team based upon national borders. For myself, I resist using the word 'we' when talking about the United States. I live here but it is not my country or my flag. For me, 'we' is the working class , 'we' is the masses of humanity in a global context. For the 'we' I think of myself as part of is international.

The division of the world into nation-state bulwarks is as historically backward as the tribe was five hundred years ago. It serves no progressive function and is a relic in the development of capitalism, for the growth of both are intertwined in history.

The Glorious Libyan Revolutionaries

2011-08-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

Going all in on ethnic cleansing.

Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries, the chairman of the African Union said, citing the fears as one reason the continental body has not recognized opposition forces as Libya's interim government.

"NTC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries," AU chairman Jean Ping said Monday, referring to the rebels' National Transitional Council. "All blacks are mercenaries. If you do that, it means (that the) one-third of the population of Libya, which is black, is also mercenaries. They are killing people, normal workers, mistreating them."(1)

I wonder what the Western 'Leftists' who gave full throated support to the uprising will have to say of this.

Interesting if they should decry the discriminatory targeting of illegal immigrants in the U.S but flick away reports of slaughter of the same in another country because it doesn't fit some half-baked notion of pan-Arab revolution.

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1'AU head: Libya rebels may be killing black workers' - Ap

More Genetic Gobbletygoop

2011-08-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

"The HLA genes that the Neanderthals and Denisovans had, had been adapted to life in Europe and Asia for several hundred thousand years, whereas the recent migrants from Africa wouldn't have had these genes," said study leader Peter Parham from Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

"So getting these genes by mating would have given an advantage to populations that acquired them."

I wish scientists would top pretending that they understand all this stuff. They don't. Instead they are using their half-knowledge to reinforce racism. We get it, blacks are dumb and weak, and Whites (and now some honorary Asians) are better. OK, so go ahead a colonize those dumb and weak people, they can't do better on their own.

The sway that poorly understood biology has in the nature-nurture debate is indicative of a society that basically doesn't give a shit about equal opportunity. If all you look at is genetics, then of course, that is the only causation you will find.

And, apparently Peter Parham of Stanford thinks that Native Americans are a different, and primitive species:

"Peter Parham suggested a parallel could be drawn between the events of this period and the European conquest of the Americas.

"Initially you have small bands of Europeans exploring, having a difficult time and making friends with the natives; but as they establish themselves, they become less friendly and more likely to take over their resources and eliminate them."

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1'Neanderthal sex boosted immunity in modern humans' - BBC News UK

War Requires Skill as Well as Brute Power

2011-08-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

The teenagers totting machine guns around the checkpoints of Tripoli did not turn the tide in Libya. It was professional training and strategy from Western special ops forces.
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If this is your idea of a revolution, then so be it.

A US official was quoted as confirming reports that Qatari special forces had helped spearhead the rebel storming of Bab al-Aziziya, and that British, French and Italian advisers had played a role.(1)

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1'Street fighting rages in Tripoli as Gaddafi loyalists fight rearguard action'- UK Guardian

The Limits of Gadflyism

2011-08-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Alexander Cockburn as an exhbit:

For their part the progressives howl about Perry’s gesture towards secession. “We’ve got a great union,” he famously said in response to a reporter’s question. “There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.” Big cheers from the crowd. I don’t see what’s wrong with Perry’s stand. I’m all for the right to self-determination, hence state secession. Aside from anything else, it’s how empires fall apart. Vermont, Alaska, Hawai’i, Texas – the empire crumbling just like the Towers. What’s wrong with that picture?

Secession means war. And border wars are probably the last area of potential large scale conflict because nuclear weapons are of little use. Regionalism is a luddite fantasy in a world as economically and technologically integrated as ours. The nation state is actually one of the dialetic contradictions of capitalism; global economic expansion requires greater political internationalization but capitalism is bound to the nation state structure from whence it came. Of course, this is where the working class comes in.

1'Rick Perry: One Lucky Son-of-a-Bitch' - Counterpunch

Looking for a Job, Any Job

2011-08-19T06:05:00.001-07:00

'Lucky to Have a Job'

2011-08-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

I'm hearing this phrase punted around a lot, usually by bosses. Which is nonsense, a job is a right - not necessarily the job you want, but the opportunity to work and have a decent standard of living.

Yes, I understand bosses want us to feel 'lucky', but that has no bearing on the ideal state of a society - only their ideal state.

The Verizon Strike

2011-08-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

This is a big deal and rather courageous given the economic climate; little has been mentioned about it on what passes for the Left blogosphere. The use of anti-terror laws to intimidate the strikers is as horrific as it is expected.

1'Injunctions attack democratic rights of Verizon strikers' - World Socialist Web Site

An 'Equal Opportunity' Police State

2011-08-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

is still a police state. This is the problem with arguing against anti-terror laws on the basis of racism. Well then fine, lock up all dissidents of any color, and watch liberal arguments deflate.

On the Fall of John Paulson

2011-08-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

According to CNBC, hedge fund guru John Paulson is down 34% for the year.

With only 'experts' now playing the markets, for the most part, the experts will therefore as a group get 'average' results.

And even when rolling dice there is a 1 and 36 chance of getting snake eyes, but this does not mean the person who rolled it is especially skilled.

Rick Perry, Underestimated

2011-08-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

It looks like liberals are underestimating Rick Perry in much the way they did George W. Bush. Calling someone stupid and a cowboy does not hurt electability in this country. But Perry is no Bush, he is a more dangerous and skilled politician who is at least partly backed by New Dixie secessionists. Folks who would rather smash the current construction of the United States than compromise or give in.

No New F-16's for Taiwan

2011-08-16T14:51:00.001-07:00

In July, the U.S. State Department indicated a final decision on the F-16 issue would be made by Oct. 1. Since 2006, the U.S. has repeatedly denied Taiwan's request for 66 F-16C/D Block 50/52s, a prospective sale estimated at more than $8 billion.

The planes would replace 60 F-5 Tigers and 60 Mirage 2000-5s due for retirement within five to 10 years.

China has called the sale a "red line." A recent editorial in the state-controlled People's Daily called for the use of a "financial weapon" against the U.S. if new F-16s were released.

The U.S. decision comes as a blow to the self-ruled island's effort to counter China's growing military, whose first aircraft carrier began sea trials last week, and therefore to its independence.(1)

1'U.S. To Deny Taiwan New F-16 Fighters' - Defense News

The Swiss Franc as the Global Reserve Currency

2011-08-15T22:33:00.001-07:00

More distortions in the global economy, as investors flee the U.S. dollar only to find there isn't much to run to. Switzerland certainly does not have the capacity to support a significant reserve currency. So we now have low level currency wars.

“The franc is catastrophically overvalued,” said Blocher, a former justice minister for the People’s Party, Switzerland’s largest. “It’s almost like economic warfare -- to wage a war, you must use all measures at your disposal, and you must win.”

Note: The People's Party is a nativist , anti-immigrant party.

Apologizing for 'Any Offence' Regarding the Darcus Howe Interview

2011-08-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

This is not an apology BBC, this is political double talk, and garbage. Just don't say anything if you don't mean it.

It reminds me when I temped for a well known Northern California HMO , and we had to call angry customers and say much the same thing - this type of apology is legally meaningless and scripted as such. It avoids any mention of real guilt or wrongdoing.

In the real world, people say 'sorry , I was wrong to say that'.

"We'd like to apologise for any offence that this interview has caused," the BBC wrote on its website. 1

Condeming the Riots in London

2011-08-11T02:09:00.000-07:00

It would be nice, in a way, for someone to go on TV and not condemn the riots. Maybe even express the wish that they had happened during the Olympics. One does get tired of the sanctimoniousness of our leaders, inveterate killers and sadists that they are.

The London Riots

2011-08-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Rioting bores me, it almost never leads to positive social change and often just scares the shit out of sections of the working class and opens the door to a larger security state. This is why you'll find the Drudge's and Zero Hedge-type libertarians of the world cheering it on. Because they in fact are libertarian only in the pursuit of capital, but idolize the power and domination that comes with it. Bottom line, rioting is just dumb and lumpen.

On the other hand, it's too be expected in a society that has a generational declining standard of living and vast swaths of youth unemployment. The youth are being fucked, thoroughly and completely. It's amusing to see the hapless UK Guardian trot out aging responsible community leaders to prove to their masters how well mannered they are.

Quite a few people, especially amongst the young, just want the system to burn down - the stench of corruption , venality, hypocrisy amongst our meritocrats and their masters is overwhelming. I would just argue that wanton sacking isn't the most effective way to go about things.

The Narcissism of 'Wall Street'

2011-08-09T08:29:00.001-07:00

Some prominent finance oriented websites are titillated with the notion that Obama cleared his schedule today for them and their needs.

It was actual to pay tribute to the Navy Seals killed in Afghanistan.

China 'the largest Creditor"

2011-08-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've seen this written umpteenth times recently, but it's not exactly true. The Federal Reserve is the largest holder of US treasuries at the moment, at least officially. And they could double the size of their holdings without blinking an eyelash. Just showing the U.S. is not going to default as long as it has a shred of governability left, which it may not. And if China is worried about their dollar denominated assets, they shouldn't have pursued the Asian export model in a country of 1.4 billion. Their leadership still seems vaguely naive about what capitalism is, which is winners and losers and the violence necessary to sort out or perpetuate that order. Holding a bunch of 'dollars' on a computer screen doesn't do much for the winning side of the ledger when you come down to it.

Euro Debt

2011-08-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

With weak growth there's no way Club Med countries can stay in the Euro. It's not simply a matter of balancing a budget today, governments need revenue and that comes from growth. I suspect what 'speculators' are attacking in the financial markets is Italy's moribund growth prospects as much as anything. And under the ECB staightjacket, along with domestic hostility to immigration and negative fertility rates, that won't change.

The Export Fantasy

2011-08-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

China's Exports to GDP ratio is .4, the United States' is .1. The point being, Obama's dream of a export-centered recovery was always fantasy because it's not a significant share of the US economy and hasn't been for years. The U.S. has been an economy built on domestic demand and domestic growth since the opening of the West. And as things stand, much of American industry is not competitive in the global market, and won't be without a currency collapse, which is impossible given the dollar's role as safe haven. Which is why the country will continue to rot from the core until the global financial architecture is changed, which won't happen because Wall Street and foreign mercantilists won't let it. The ruling classes mostly have their chips in this system.