alanjjohnstone
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Following another Jihadist atrocity in Vienna, the Muslim community is often accused of not condemning such acts but when they do, it seems it gets little coverage.
French Muslim leaders on Monday condemned calls for boycotts of French goods in Muslim countries as “unjustified” and accused those leading the charge of “using Islam for political gain”.
“There are times when we must show solidarity with our country which has suffered unjustified attacks in the past weeks,” the heads of three major mosques and three Muslim associations said in a joint statement.
French law, they said, “gives a lot of space to freedom of expression” and gives citizens the right “to believe or not believe.”
The leaders of the Great Mosques of Paris, Lyon and the French Mediterranean island of Reunion, along with the leaders of three Muslim groups condemned terrorism “and all forms of violence in the name of our religion”.
They also expressed indignation at “calls for murder launched by foreign leaders”, apparently referring to a tweet by the former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, who claimed Muslims had “a right to be angry and kill millions of French people.”
The real trouble with the presidential transition is that the stop-gap pandemic stimulus has not been agreed and there will not be any incentive for Trump to reach an agreement with the Democrats on one.
In fact, he may relish passing on a the emotional misery, the material suffering and economic chaos to the next president. This means two months of real pain for our American fellow-workers.
The consequences can only be imagined when they say we are only three (or whatever) meals away from anarchy.
D-Day has finally come.
Our SOYMB blog has daily posted a series of articles with the theme of lesser evil voting since the 11th August – a total of 87 blog posts as our unique contribution to the president election debate. We might be ignored by our American fellow-workers but we can’t be accused of neglecting their interests.
The American SLP wrote to Einstein. Don’t know if he replied
http://www.deleonism.org/text/ae000003.htm
“Soon enough paper books, newspapers, and magazines will be no more. Every person will have an electronic notebook—a combination of a flat screen and a mini radio transmitter. No matter where you are in the world, if you key a specific code in the notebook, you will be able to summon texts and images from giant remote databases. This will forever replace not only books, newspapers, and magazines, but also television.”
Written in the mid-1980s
The Pope back-tracks on gay marriage
The Vatican has reaffirmed Pope Francis’ opposition to homosexual marriage in a letter sent to bishops around the world. The letter argues that the pope’s comments in support of same-sex unions were heavily edited.
https://www.dw.com/en/vatican-clarifies-popes-comments-on-homosexual-unions/a-55478883
Claire Wardle, the executive director of First Draft, a group that researches and combats disinformation.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/02/trump-us-election-disinformation-russia
“‘Don’t trust the electoral system, don’t trust the CDC, don’t trust your neighbor because they’re probably antifa, don’t trust the left,’” Wardle said of Trump’s re-election message. “It’s not about persuading people one way or the other, it’s about making them scared and causing confusion and chaos,”
YMS, this article suggests that there is also broad bipartisan agreement on the causes of racism
“Both Trump and Biden have remained within the same neoliberal capitalist framework where concerns over racial, class-based inequalities are outdone by superfluous debates over removing Confederate flags and monuments of racist historical figures. Less debated are issues dealing with demilitarizing police departments and properly funding public schools.
Professor Toure Reed of Illinois State University recently wrote: “For the past several decades now, liberals and conservatives alike have been disposed to view racial inequality through one of two racialist frames: the ingrained, if not inborn cultural deficiencies of black and brown poor people; or the ingrained, if not inborn racism of whites. The political-economic underpinnings of inequality, however, have been of little interest to either Democrats or Republicans….Why? Because that would force both Democrats and Republicans—who are often beholden to Wall Street firms, K-Street lobbyists, and the broader investor class—to reveal positions, strategies, and policies that produce the forms and types of racial and wealth inequalities that they ought to be addressing for the betterment of all Americans. But to do so means potentially putting themselves and their supporters out of business… It is easier to frame things with slogans like “Battle for the Soul of the Nation” and “Keep America Great” …”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/10/31/working-class-america-needs-real-change-not-slogans
I’m possibly incurring the wrath of LBird and his democracy views but can we be certain that all decision-making will be by local communities voting.
Surely the most suited to determine the expertise of a medical practitioner will be a body such as the BMA, their fellow peers. Who is better qualified? His or her patients? The hospital management? And education. Is an elected school board as the US still have and the UK once had reflective of a teachers skills? (we also had local health boards, too, didn’t we?) Isn’t delegation something to be desired in many cases?
If we say all local administrators will be elected (despite caveats of recallability) will we be victims of the oratory skills of applicants rather than genuine ability? This is the issue i have with the American system of local government. Too many positions are elected and therefore subject to public opinion rather than fellow colleague’s approval. I recall John Oliver’s episode on how a coroner in many US jurisdictions require no training whatsoever despite extensive powers.
In America there are half a million elected officials, commissioners and administrators.
I see that Glen Greenwald and the progressive media outlet, the Intercept, have parted ways for his critical analysis of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, a signal that the liberals wish to suppress unwelcomed reporting on Biden. Perhaps an indication of the future under a Biden presidency…friendly coverage from the left. Or will they resume being anti-establishment?
I think concerning the idea of “smaller is better” which we have been skeptical of in the realm of production does involve also a political dimension of democracy.
I had a exchange with “national anarchists” (and i think in the early days on this forum there was someone who posted reflecting their position) by declaring autonomous communities could be legitimately racist and identitarian by excluding those they were prejudiced against on the grounds that local democracy and choice triumphed over all.
All i really am saying is that when implementing socialism, there will be some difficult questions that will have to be resolved. We have to accept that part of the transition will be an uneven development around the globe. I am confident, however, that the best fit from experience will generally prevail.
I took it to refer to the unique American political tendency of states rights and the anti-federal government stance of many like the Rand Pauls. The coal owners could act with impunity in West Virginia, for instance
I have also always wondered if the American way of electing so many public office positions such as judges and district attorneys and coroners and sheriffs and the proverbial dog-catcher is an expression of democracy in action or whether it means those supposed non-partisan officials appeal to political biases of the the electors and they exercise their power with one eye on the elections rather than reflect real justice. When i have asked Americans of both right and left forums i have been unsatisfied with the answers from both. The debate on the SCOTUS is in many ways about this…lifetime appointees are immune to popular pressure but they are political appointees, not fellow professional recommendations.
“The aim of the right is always to restrict the scope of class conflict – to bring it down to as low a level as possible. The smaller and more local the political unit, the easier it is to run it oligarchically.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/01/us-politics-state-government-democrats-left
“One of the biggest problems with American democracy is that it’s not democratic.”
Roger D. Harris of the Peace and Freedom Party makes another plea not to vote for the lesser evil.
Left-Democrats Abandon Struggle for the Working Class to the Right
He especially addresses those such as LT
“Those who find this coup scenario somewhat hyperbolic are accused of “naivete and [taking] childish enablement of abuse to new levels.””
I think the biggest service the Trostksyist collective could do for the working class, is to get all of the different Trotskyist parties to start giving individual horse racing tips, then we wouldl know exactly which horses to avoid!!
I don’t know if it is an urban legend or not but i have a recollection of reading a history of the British Communist Party which said that their paper, the Daily Worker, had its largest readership when they had a very informed racing tipster writing for it.
