alanjjohnstone

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 4,516 through 4,530 (of 12,551 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Another war flashpoint? #207292
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    An article re-iterating your point about Turkey

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/28/syrian-rebel-fighters-prepare-to-deploy-to-azerbaijan-in-sign-of-turkeys-ambition

    Syrian rebel fighters have signed up to work for a private Turkish security company as border guards in Azerbaijan

    Erdogan said, “The Turkish people stand with their Azeri brothers with all our means, as always,” against what  he characterised as Armenian attacks

     

    in reply to: Yanis Varoufakis and his ‘Another Now,’ #207277
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Another article by Varoufakis promoting his proposed reforms, a return to the two Roosevelts

    https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/09/28/redistribution-games

     

    in reply to: President Biden? #207219
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    It appears that the election is more or less over regardless of any debates. The Trump supporters aren’t going to swing, Trumps no tax paid or any other revelation is fake news, and Biden’s voters are as equally unmovable.

    Biden will win the popular vote just as did Clinton did, but in those crucial states that will determine the Electoral College outcome is all close enough to the margin of error.

    Nor does it look like there will be an immediate result on the day…all those TV pundits will be blethering about everything but who will be the next president…it could be a day or few for that to be known – and both parties are readying their lawyers in anticipation.

    I’m always astonished that America, that progressive nation of enterprise and ingenuity, can remain so stuck in the 18thC with its constitution. There is absolutely no movement to reform the electoral process to something akin to proportional representation by the many methods available.

    Even the unrestricted write-in rules for voting is limited to 7 states then there are 9 who don’t permit it and then the rest have varying conditions – hoops to jump through – for write-ins.

     

     

     

    in reply to: No Nukes or More Nukes #207205
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    No Nukes was a common slogan for the Stop Torness nuclear power station protesters.

    It has been used also by others.

    You may restrict its use in the limited sense of no nuclear weapons, but many others use it as shorthand for no nuclear energy, as well.

    in reply to: Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitic #207203
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Annexation without citizenship

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/27/israels-silent-transfer-of-palestinians-out-of-palestine

    Israel applies Israeli law to East Jerusalem and grants Palestinians “permanent resident” status, a status “accorded to foreign nationals wishing to reside in Israel”, except that Palestinians are indigenous to the land.

    Palestinians of East Jerusalem do not have a right to automatic Israeli citizenship

    in reply to: More on Brexit #207195
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    The Swiss understand where their interests lie

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54316316

    in reply to: another look at 5G – US military #207194
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Best coverage

    https://consortiumnews.com/

    At the time the mainstream media  were all very happy to use Wikileaks and if the same standard of justice were to be applied they would all be in the dock with Assange

    in reply to: Anti-communism – what is it? #207172
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Perhaps i’ll watch Andrew Neil’s new GB News

    in reply to: Eleanor Marx and Womens Rights #207159
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Just uploaded to MIA is Eleanor Marx review of Bebel’s book “Woman…”

    https://www.marxists.org/archive/eleanor-marx/1885/bebelrev.htm

    Also with a focus on  women’s issues is

    https://www.marxists.org/archive/eleanor-marx/1885/pallmall.htm

     “We, the women, must, above all the rest, bestir ourselves. Us chiefly it concerns, and we must work only with those who can really help us ; those who understand that the “salvation” of society means the revolution of society. The old biblical story may serve our turn. We need a deluge — aye! though it were one of blood — to wipe out the sin and wickedness of this society of ours. It is with those who would revolutionise society that our work as women lies.”

     

    in reply to: President Biden? #207151
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Ralph Nader’s wish list for Biden

    https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/09/26/democratic-voters-your-demands-trump-voters-see-how-he-didnt-deliver-you

    Democratic voters should demand that the Democratic Party candidates pledge to vote to (1) raise the long frozen, federal minimum wage of $7.25 to a living wage; (2) support more efficient full Medicare for All (with free choice of doctors and hospitals and no cruel, irritating networks); (3) repeal Trump’s two trillion dollar tax cut, with additional loopholes for the rich, and huge corporate subsidies and giveaways; and to use the money to upgrade and rebuild the job-rich public works sector as well as the infrastructure in every community in the country – both in the red and blue states; (4) crack down, with law and order, on the corporate crimewave that bleeds consumers out of trillions of dollars a year; (5) repeal anti-labor laws to facilitate empowering tens of millions of workers who want to join unions to defend their economic and safety interests; and (6) accelerate the transition to a solar-based economy with better air, water, greater neighborhood self-reliance, and to reduce the devastating climate disruption from the burning of fossil fuels.

    Has he any hope in having those fulfilled? And even if he does, will it make much of a difference?

     

    in reply to: Reason and Science in Danger. #207149
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Just read this bit from Richard Wolff  in his case that COVID-19 pandemic might have greater ramifications for capitalism

    “In 14th century Europe, the black death pandemic began the end of feudalism because millions of serfs were too dead or too sick to produce the surpluses paid as rent to their feudal landlords,” writes Wolff. “That rent supported the entire political and cultural structures of European feudalism. They consequently crumbled and took the system down. Today, tens of millions of unemployed on top of all the dead and sick are likewise depriving our capitalist system of the surpluses, profits, etc. that support our political and cultural institutions. The disintegration of capitalism, especially where the death, sickness, and unemployment are worst (US) is furthest along.”

    https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the-rich-wont-let-us/

    in reply to: Coronavirus #207147
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    We see increasing numbers of anti-lockdown protests globally but more ominous is the political boost such a stance  it is giving the right

    Despite downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19, Brazil’s president’s approval rating is at its highest since he took office.

    in reply to: Anti-communism – what is it? #207145
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Another bit of related news

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/capitalism-teaching-school-racism-violence-democracy-gavin-williamson-b625480.html

    “…Schools have been banned from using teaching material that calls for the end of capitalism because it is an “extreme political stance”…Even material that is “not extreme” has been outlawed if it has been produced by organisations on the banned list, because that could “imply endorsement”…Also outlawed is “the encouragement or endorsement of illegal activity, a failure to condemn illegal activities done in their name or in support of their cause, particularly violent actions against people or property.”

    in reply to: Reason and Science in Danger. #207141
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Yes, which resulted in the victory of the bourgeoisie, finalised in 1688. ,But the bourgeoisie did not overthrow feudalism in England. The Black Death and then the wars up to 1485 did that. 1485-1688 was the revolution. The civil war was just part of it, and it wasn’t the bourgeoisie overthrowing feudalism!

    Was it the Peasants Revolt by Jack Straw, John Ball (a priest)  etc?

    in reply to: President Biden? #207092
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Its all about Roe V Wade and Supreme Court ending abortion which unites the Catholics with the Evangelicals and the Mormons and all the other fundamentalists

Viewing 15 posts - 4,516 through 4,530 (of 12,551 total)