alanjjohnstone
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Is this the purpose of the UK military taking possession of an Iranian ship?
To provoke Iran into retaliation and so provide the pretext of joining the USA in any possible attack.
Bolton applauded the interception of the supertanker, “Excellent news” and according to the Spanish it was at America’s instigation the ship’s hijacking was undertaken.
Many thanks for that info, Dave. Perhaps I should pay more attention to the EC minutes than just skimming over them and quickly forgetting their content. I do recall the latest SPC minutes and noticed that our hard-pressed Internet Committee’s expertise is required for another project.
Has the former Media Committee’s very extensive data-base of media contacts been kept and available for download? I’m sure I saw it on file somewhere but I can’t recall where to locate it.
I’d like a copy as the SOYMB blog often takes upon itself to issue posts in the name of the Party as a form of Party statement, when various events or incidents happen. Easy enough to adapt the text into a press release and CC e-mails to all the appropriate news outlets (ensuring it isn’t mistaken for spam)
Once again as you had often pointed out in the past on the forum, the heavy load of the Party’s activities is being placed upon the backs of just a few members. So we cannot really expect the Party to perform as efficiently and as effectively as it should and hope.
Can this continue indefinitely? None of us are getting any younger, are we?
How can a voluntarist organisation such as ours involve more members in its administration and running without appearing to be too demanding upon the time and energy of our members?
Has RobinC’s very modest ten-minutes-a-month on the web obligation been taken up by many? But we’d never know because most members won’t even spend five minutes a month on this forum, will they?
It may be that for those few members who are busy engaging in Party activity should start to forego party procedures and begin to act with much more self-reliance, despite the down-side that it challenges the democracy of the Party and the accountability of its members.
Writers for the Socialist Standard should widen their horizons to various receptive websites. But the blog has frequently requested contributions without result.
Perhaps we should have a column in the SS entitled “From the Web”, re-printing a member’s article already published on another website but that practice does take away the Standard’s originality, though, doesn’t it?
As BrianJ use to sign off,
yours for positive socialism
And apologies for going off-topic. BrianJ would be issuing me with one of his warnings
Much appreciated, Marcos.
Lie down with the dogs and you get fleas.
Confirms that there exists a murky world of procedural processes but the link does say that AOC did not vote for the actual deal, merely that it should be put to a vote.
“Ocasio-Cortez voted to bring the House version to the floor for a full vote…[Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib] voting “no” for the final bill…”
The WSWS, not unsurprisingly seeks to place the most negative connotations upon Democratic Party maneuvering.
Here is a slightly fuller account from others who also seek to diminish AOC “radical” credentials
Our problem isn’t capitalism – it is the banking system we have
Wall Street Beware: The Public Banking Movement Is Coming for You
“…What makes public banks different from traditional banks is that they are actually accountable to the public — they’re democratic. So the public can not only decide what services the bank provides and where their taxpayer dollars are invested, but they also have a say in what kinds of investments are off limits…”
Andrew Yang on the campaign trail promotes his version described by a critic as “A handout bribing them to be quiet”
“Yang’s proposal would see each American receive $12,000 per year, although current government benefits received would be subtracted from the individual amounts. To put this sum in perspective, the median household income in the US is over $60,000…paid for by a new VAT, essentially a [regressive] sales tax, [where] for the poor and middle class, it’s a higher percentage of their income.
And is it not the media committee’s remit to contact the media to promote the party, just what is it they are supposed to do.
Can I ask when was our last press release, for instance, other than during the Euro election which I would presume resulted in contacting media outlets with news of our campaign.
Maybe Media Committee was merged another…i’m not up to date with party-reorganisation
“…Is someone on the Publicity Committee on this forum?…”
If someone is, then he or she is in a very small minority of Party members.
I find it disappointing that something that took some members much effort in creating and which could contribute greatly to the Party’s work, is shamefully neglected by most of the other Party members.
But to be fair, we are not the only ones which has a forum attracting less and less participation. So is Libcom. And the website Anarkismo, as well.
Well, we do have Trump suggesting that the two-term limit for a president is not set in stone tablets.
He has broken the law when he obstructed justice
The Supreme Court saying that state gerrymandering of election districts is not its responsibility so perhaps free elections is at risk.
The demands for Assange to be arrested – a warning shot across the bows to the media not to publish whistle-blowers?
The constant undermining of the right to abortion by use of loopholes in Roe V Wade.
Even Israel managed to convict one of its soldiers for killing a wounded enemy, something a US jury couldn’t bring itself to doing.
But AOC did not say fascism had arrived.
Nor did she say how far down the road towards it America had travelled, just that there are signs of fascism manifesting itself in the political arena.
She is, however, shining a light on many dark places Americans have no wish to see.
But if the use of presidential executive orders is a signal of a dictator, then Trump has never used them to the extent of other presidents.
The USA will continue to slide down the democracy index particularly for those sections of population being targeted as scape-goats.
I hope your optimism is correct but already some recognize that the duopoly of political power is disappearing from America’s political scene and transforming into a one-party system. Is Pelosi very much different from some Republicans by pledging not to challenge Trump’s legitimacy by any impeachment process, of aligning with the GOP to condemn her own reformist wing in the Democratic Party.
“…That’s not going to happen, not least because people there don’t want it and wouldn’t stand for it…”
I think a lot of polls do suggest that America is now succumbing from the sway of the strong-man…Trump’s popularity and approval ratings has remained consistent and not fallen despite his repeated exposures as inept. Not sure what social opinions should be featured but most Americans are not on the liberal end of them, are they? Many American’s simply do not recognize their basic politics as being reactionary and will not self-identify with being fascistic
I don’t think the rise of right-wing terrorism in the USA is an aberration, but a reflection of the slow drift towards conservative extremism.
I think the real problem is the misuse of the word fascist. Very few right-wing authoritarian regimes mirror Mussolini’s fascism, Franco’s Falangists, much less Hitler’s Nazism.
Trump like the other populist leaders (there are now too many to list) are very different. But does that mean we cannot talk of Trumpism as a identifiable political current with a strong cult of the personality fostered by Fox Media.
But just to contradict myself, very many polls demonstrate that a number of Trump policies do not have majority support from the public. HOWEVER, when you say American people wouldn’t stand it – they do and they have and acquiesce without very much challenge.
As always, when it comes to the US, we cannot view it as a homogenous society, many regions differ in beliefs an opinions. The blog highlighted the political polarization in Oregon where local Republicans boasted of possessing an armed wing to intimidate and threaten the Democrat state government into dropping liberal proposals
To be truthful, if you are an “illegal”, you are already subject to an authoritarian regime, of being hunted down and detained in concentration camps, with only token opposition from a minority of the docile passive majority. Not identical but nevertheless not very different from the UK practice…
London bureau
E-mail: LondonBureau@rttv.ru16th Floor Millbank Tower
21-24 Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Telephone +44 749 5649 8989I never knew Murray Bookchin had written about Bernie Sanders in an early 1986 article, a critique by the proponent of libertarian municipalism of Sanders performance as Burlington’s mayor.
“…Bernard Sanders’ version of socialism is proving to be a subtle instrument for rationalizing the marketplace — not for controlling it, much less threatening it…”
https://libcom.org/library/bernie-sanders-paradox-when-socialism-grows-old
“…One might reasonably ask what Eugene V. Debs would do in the eighties if he were the mayor of a city like Burlington…A Debs would vigorously have tried to heal the rift between arms workers and peace activists, not exploit it. In the eighties, he would have been a fiery spokesperson for environmental, feminist, and gay causes. He would have fought unstintingly for a genuine people’s waterfront and tried in every way to foster an active, local democracy — not restrict citizens’s assemblies to rubber-stamping City Hall projects.
Perhaps most important, a Debs would have fostered the development of new municipal institutions that would enhance local control by municipalities over the authority of state and federal institutions. He would have brought Vermont towns together in lasting coalitions or confederations to countervail the growing centralization of power in Montpelier and Washington, not ad hoc municipal “lobbies” to gain local tax powers. Finally, a Debs would have tried to build a grassroots movement — an independent leftist movement — not surround himself with a coterie of personal followers that has the arrogance to call itself a “Progressive coalition.” Bernard Sanders has done virtually nothing that could be imputed to a Debs…”Marcos, can you clarify. Last thing I read was that she was still condemning the funding deal and had not voted for it.
Are you mixing it up another previous vote from several months ago where she did vote for a package that also provided ICE with an increased budget?
“Ocasio-Cortez asserted that the “whole congressional allocation was a farce because if he really cared about human lives he wouldn’t have needed us the same way he bypasses us for a wall….Ocasio-Cortez condemned lawmakers in her own party for supporting a flawed border funding measure, referring to those who backed the Senate version of the measure as “horrible Democrats.” ”
She has been rattling the bars on the cages of the Republicans and Democrats by exposing the inhumanity of the migrant cages. I think we can all applaud her efforts to show solidarity with detainees in the US and the excluded on the Mexican side of the border. I don’t believe it is politician bull-shit but a sincere position she holds.
It may be a bit of hyperbole but she certainly rattled the Establishment’s cage when she said the USA was heading towards fascism.
“Are we headed to fascism? Yes. I don’t think there’s a question. If you actually take the time to study, and to look at the steps, and to see how government transforms under authoritarian regimes, and look at the political decisions and patterns of this president, the answer is yes.”
The UK reveals its true colours with an act of piracy
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/04/royal-marines-gibraltar-tanker-oil-syria-eu-sanctions
