Young Master Smeet
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Eye witness accounts are unreliable, but aphorisms are likely to be studiously learned, so their consistency is telling.But the point is that the historical biological entity called may well have existed, but he is utterly irrelevent behind the mythical construct, much like Pythagoras – or, indeed, Spartacus: we know his name, and reputation (though I believe there is some archaeological evidence for the slave revolt as well — e.g. http://www.um.es/cepoat/pantarei/?p=6751).Jesus wasn't a king, left little by way of material monuments (only his cult remained, and there is a lot of evidence for that, but we know its doctorines and narratives were highly adaptive).We can look at mohammed also, the written account of his life came, IIRC, about 60 years after his death, except his community engaged in strict authority control over the text, and also there is archaeological evidence of Arab conquest and war.The most we can reliably say is that there was a teacher in Judeah, who was probably executed by crucifixion. We can say for certain that there was a school of thoughht around that teacher, and with a high probability, we know some of the things he was teaching.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41078187
Quote:Why has North Korea chosen to do this now? Firstly to demonstrate resolve. It shows the regime in Pyongyang is not intimidated by American threats and has not "backed down", as President Trump suggested two weeks ago.Secondly, Pyongyang needs to test its new missile on a more realistic trajectory. Thirdly, such a test puts a strain on the US-Japan relationship. It makes Japan feel extremely vulnerable and tests US resolve.A commentator was on the radio this morning calling for sanctions that cut off all money to North Korea: aka a full seige.This is upping the ante, and it's clearly rattled China, who don't want war, and it will rattle a lot of Japanese people. The only question is, can the US find a face saving route away from war?
As Uncle Charlie noted: "Even a cursory examination of competition shows, furthermore, that under certain circumstances, when the greater capitalist wishes to make room for himself on the market, and to crowd out the smaller ones, as happens in times of crises, he makes practical use of this, i.e., he deliberately lowers his rate of profit in order to drive the smaller ones to the wall. "https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch13.htm
Quote:What the plan lacks in concrete details, it makes up for in vision and ambition. It depicts a future China overcoming the challenges of an aging population and resource constraints through integrating AI into everything from agriculture and manufacturing to governing and public security. Still, the plan also reveals that China’s opening salvo in the global race to dominate AI will rely on old-school centrally guided economic development. The question is, will it work?Quote:Even in our own party (though to a much lesser degree) there is a tendency against letting the mind roam free. In this I can't help feeling the continual assertion of Marxism with Socialism is in part to blame. Like many middle class people I came to Socialism through Marxism (to be more specific through Deutscher's biography of Trotsky). The trouble with Marxism is that it is fine if you make it your political servant but terrible if it becomes your political master.I actually did trouble to read Marx first hand. I found it illuminating in so many ways; in particular, my perception of the relationship between people and the society in which they live, was irreversibly altered. But ultimately it was stifling because it sought to embrace in its philosophy every facet of existence. That of course is its attraction to many. It gives them a total perspective on life. But that can simply become an excuse to stop searching for the truth.and this beauty:
Quote:T Benn is in one sense quite right in saying that the right wing of the Party is politically bankrupt. Socialism ultimately must appeal to the better minds of the people. You cannot do that if you are tainted overmuch with a pragmatic period in power.Useful post from Paul Rogers:https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/trump-vs-northkorea-45echo
Quote:The second and less obvious reason is to do with the nature of the administration now assembled in Washington. Its internal civil-military balance is the key factor. The state department is presently much weakened, with many key diplomatic and executive appointments still unfilled after nine months. This contrasts with the remarkable penetrationof the administration by senior military personnel.This is also a useful article:https://www.opendemocracy.net/gabrielle-rifkind/what-does-north-korea-want
Quote:Last week the United Nations Security Council agreed fresh sanctions against North Korea. A resolution was passed banning North Korean exports and limiting investments in the country. The export of coal, ore and other raw materials to China is one of North Korea's few sources of cash. And it is estimated to be worth $3bn worth of goods each year. Earlier this year, China suspended imports of coal to increase pressure on Pyongyang.In spite of this, President Trump tweeted last week that he was very disappointed with the Chinese and that, “our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet … they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.” Provoking the Chinese will not be an effective way to proceed, since any identifiable successful outcome will only be achieved with the support of China. For their part, the Chinese are concerned that if North Korea collapses, it would leave China’s 1400-kilometre-long Yalu River border with North Korea exposed. It fears the potential chaos of state collapse and the crossing into China of up to 5 million refugees. From the Chinese perspective, as well, the North Korean regime acting as a buffer zone is preferable to a potentially reunified Korean peninsula with the threat of US troops on their border.Somethign of a code:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-9d41ef6c-97c9-4953-ba43-284cc62ffdd0Mosul has been largely destroyed, half a million people are still displaced.
Quote:More than half of Mosul's 54 western residential districts have been significantly affected.The UN describes 15 as “heavily damaged,” meaning most buildings are uninhabitable.A further 23 districts are “moderately damaged,” meaning up to half of the buildings have been destroyed or are structurally unsound, and 16 districts are “lightly damaged”.and
Quote:While UN satellite analysis suggests about 10,000 buildings have been severely damaged or completely destroyed, the real level of destruction is believed to be higher. Taking into account damage to multiple floors of buildings, not seen via satellites, the UN now estimates the real number of damaged buildings to be more than three times greater – about 32,000.Mostly civilian homes: the old city has been all but destroyed.Last Friday, 5 people were killed by a suicide bomber in Mosul. Mass graves ae being found.
Another useful wikipedia article:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PythagorasThe point isn't so much that there was never anyone called Jesus (although that itself may be debatable), but just how much was the product of a cultural milieu and legends.For instance, it's argued we have very weak evidence for the existence of the Roman Emporers, and much we talk about comes from a handful of later histories.
http://socialisteconomicbulletin.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/stagnant-economy-falling-investment-and.html
Quote:It should be noted that throughout the entire period from the 1st quarter of 2006 to the 1st quarter of 2008 Consumption continued to rise strongly. In fact it did not begin to turn lower until the 3rd quarter of 2008, six months after the recession began. The recession was driven by the fall in Investment. The fall in Investment was itself driven by the fall in profitability. It is the weakness of Investment which continues to act as a brake on the economy, leading to stagnation or worse. Therefore the trend in profitability takes on decisive quality if there is to be a private sector-led recovery.Quote:All countries suffered a severe slump in profitability during the Great Recession, as you might expect. Then profitability recovered somewhat after 2009. But, with the exception of Japan, all economies have lower rates of profit in 2016 than in 2007, and by some considerable margins. And in the last two years, profitability has fallen in nearly all economies, including Japan… the AMECO data show that profitability is still historically low and is now falling. No wonder business investment in productive capital has remained weak since the end of the neo-liberal period (graph below for the US) and now is even falling in some economies.Organisation of production is the set of relationships and actions that go into producing goods: so that in our society would be the firms, the teams within the firms, the legal framework underpinning those firms, etc. It's the way stuff happens.
Grundrisse wrote:Production is also immediately consumption. Twofold consumption, subjective and objective: the individual not only develops his abilities in production, but also expends them, uses them up in the act of production, just as natural procreation is a consumption of life forces. Secondly: consumption of the means of production, which become worn out through use, and are partly (e.g. in combustion) dissolved into their elements again. Likewise, consumption of the raw material, which loses its natural form and composition by being used up. The act of production is therefore in all its moments also an act of consumption. But the economists admit this. Production as directly identical with consumption, and consumption as directly coincident with production, is termed by them productive consumption. This identity of production and consumption amounts to Spinoza’s thesis: determinatio est negatio. [11] But this definition of productive consumption is advanced only for the purpose of separating consumption as identical with production from consumption proper, which is conceived rather as the destructive antithesis to production. Let us therefore examine consumption proper.I assume this is the paragraph you're thinking of.Lets remember that this was not composed for publication, but is effectively Marx thinking outloud.If you want to skip the dialectics (like I just have):
Grundrisse wrote:The conclusion we reach is not that production, distribution, exchange and consumption are identical, but that they all form the members of a totality, distinctions within a unity. Production predominates not only over itself, in the antithetical definition of production, but over the other moments as well. The process always returns to production to begin anew. That exchange and consumption cannot be predominant is self-evident. Likewise, distribution as distribution of products; while as distribution of the agents of production it is itself a moment of production. A definite production thus determines a definite consumption, distribution and exchange as well as definite relations between these different moments. Admittedly, however, in its one-sided form,production is itself determined by the other moments. For example if the market, i.e. the sphere of exchange, expands, then production grows in quantity and the divisions between its different branches become deeper. A change in distribution changes production, e.g. concentration of capital, different distribution of the population between town and country, etc. Finally, the needs of consumption determine production. Mutual interaction takes place between the different moments. This the case with every organic whole.The point is that it is one seamless process, but production, not consumption is primary, and once production is sorted out, the methods and organisation of production, consumption and distribution follow. I will add that this is obviously Social Production, before someone chimes in. However, consumption, and otehr relationships, feed into productionj, it is not a one way process.
This is particularly interesting:https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/what-taking-of-mosul-really-means
Paul Rogers wrote:The coalition dropped at least 4,848 bombs as part of Operation Inherent Resolve in June, an 11 percent increase over the previous month's record of 4,374 weapons released, according to statistics posted online Monday by U.S. Air Forces Central Command."In the first half of 2017, the coalition released at least 23,413 weapons, putting it on track to easily eclipse the 30,743 bombs dropped in all of 2016, and the 28,696 released throughout 2015” (see Stephen Losey, "As Mosul battle neared end, anti-ISIS airstrikes reached new peak", Air Force Times, 10 July 2017).And:
Paul Rogers wrote:The CTS, which was largely trained and equipped by personnel from United States special-operations command, has borne the brunt of the intense urban warfare against combat-proven ISIS paramilitaries, many of whom have been ready and willing to die for their cause. Both sides did indeed suffer as well as inflict heavy losses in the struggle for Mosul. For its part the Iraqi army is very reluctant to release casualty figures, but its special forces may have been degraded by as much as 40%.In the linked to article on the Zeuss Complex:
Paul Rogers wrote:What is happening in all three countries is an enhancement of what is now called "remote warfare". It does include the use of special forces and private military companies, but most of the “fighting” is done from the air, with minimal consequences for the combatants from the coalition states. Accurate figures are difficult to come by, but by aggregating reports from diverse sources it would appear that less than twenty military personnel have been killed among the western coalition forces, a marked contrast with the probably 50,000 losses on the ISIS side.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-40577265/the-civilians-fleeing-mosulhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-40572318/blasts-drown-out-victory-celebrations-in-mosulhttps://theconversation.com/mosul-is-liberated-but-the-fight-against-islamic-state-and-its-ideology-continues-80758?sg=d7d90b7b-202e-4b1c-a0c8-174dfb028957&sp=1&sr=1eh bottom line of all the above, the effects of the battle against IS will be felt for a long time to come, especially as, as Paul Rogers points out here:http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/paul_rogers_monthly_briefing/after_mosul_islamic_state%E2%80%99s_asian_and_african_futureThe examples of the Naxalites and Boko Haram is that such groups at the margins can persist, and climate change and economic deprivation (mixed, as the peice from the Conversation notes, with corruption) can leave young people desparate enough to join these groups.
Rulebook wrote:7. The Branch shall be the unit of organisation. A Branch may be formed by not less than six members making written application on the prescribed form to the Executive Committee and receiving their sanction.No mention of geography, any 6 members can form a branch already, as long as they can fill in a form C once a year, they're a branch. If they want to pass binding resolutions, they need to follow standing orders for remote operations of branches (they do need to be reformed).Once 6 members have subscribed to abranch, only 3 members need to be able to meet.
