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1801 [lbo-talk] [Pen-l] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 5:16 PM, // ravi wrote: > This is why I think Doug is wrong in the claim that it was plain to see what Obama was going to do once elected. What black and other youth got was not a crystal ball but one of those mini biosphere ball with a lot of organic stuff floating around from which, it was promised, life would emerge. And they bought it and we can t blame them. Of course, people who are not obsessive political junkies could have no idea what Obama would do. They don't re ...

Document Size:	5588
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 14:26:16 PDT 2011

1802 [lbo-talk] comparing the plans -- rank: 1000

CBO compares Boehner & Reid: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/123xx/doc12353/ComparisonTableBudgetControlAct.pdf Almost identical spending cuts except for Reid's proposed caps on war funding. Doug

Document Size:	4805
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 10:36:00 PDT 2011

1803 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 1:19 PM, SA wrote: > I think you just have to expect that neither electoral nor extra-electoral pressure will accomplish much as long as there are so few leftists. Pressure would be effective with more leftists. The question is how to manufacture them. You've got a chicken-egg thing here: one reason there are so few leftists is that the political system is stacked against us.

Document Size:	4938
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 10:33:41 PDT 2011

1804 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 11:21 AM, Andy wrote: > On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: >> >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/28/arctic-scientist-polar-bear-oil >> >> Arctic scientist who exposed climate threat to polar bear is suspended >> US government conducts 'integrity inquiry' on federal biologist amid lobbying by oil firms for Arctic permits >> Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent > > ...

Document Size:	5672
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 09:07:36 PDT 2011

1805 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 9:53 AM, Andy wrote: > n Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > > >> It's one thing to vote for the guy. [...] environmental groups will go on about how much worse the GOP would be. (On the last, how about the way they suspended that EPA guy for reporting on polar bear death from climate change because it might interfere with drilling in the Arctic?) > > I hadn't heard that one, which contributes to one wondering ...

Document Size:	10751
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 07:42:38 PDT 2011

1806 [lbo-talk] Obama -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 7:07 AM, SA wrote: > I don't get this argument about the centrality of Obama mobilizing black youth. It's indisputable that Ross Perot mobilized the white working class - does that mean he was a positive force? Mobilizing some subaltern group seems worthwhile only if it's behind a decent political program. If it's just a mobilization for some crappy politician, then it's not worthwhile. In fact, it could actually be harmful. It's activistism, man. People in motion = good!

Document Size:	4828
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 06:41:43 PDT 2011

1807 [lbo-talk] other puzzles in American politics -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 4:39 AM, SA wrote: > [The best thing about the debt ceiling thing is how it tends to throw into relief certain underlying dynamics in American politics. It's like when the tide goes out and suddenly you can see the ocean floor, which was there all along but invisible.] > > http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/28/whos-missing-from-debt-talks-corporate-america/ Yesterday's FT had a somewhat different take: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6a2695fc-b86f-11e0-b62b-00144f ...

Document Size:	6756
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 06:40:44 PDT 2011

1808 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 28, 2011, at 11:25 PM, Julio Huato wrote: > Given the menu back then, voting for Obama was the right thing to do. > In spite of your skepticism, you voted for Obama. Whatever your > rationale -- if it was good for you, why was it not so for others? If > one thinks that voting for Obama is better than the alternative, then > why not call others to do the same? It seems to me like wanting to > have it both ways. It's one thing to vote for the guy. It's another to waste ...

Document Size:	5738
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 06:29:44 PDT 2011

1809 [lbo-talk] Alex Cockburn is funny -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 8:03 AM, James Heartfield wrote: > Who says these days that in the last analysis, the only way to change the status quo and challenge the Money Power of Wall St is to overthrow the government by force? That isn t some old Trotskyist lag like Louis Proyect, dozing on the dungheap of history like Odysseus lice-ridden old hound Argos, woofing with alarm as the shadow of a new idea darkens the threshold. > > And what s not to like about that? Well, I like Louis Proyect ...

Document Size:	5090
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 06:19:27 PDT 2011

1810 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 12:11 AM, // ravi wrote: > The turnout makes Doug s point, no? Youth vote came out in 2008 due to Obamania. By 2010 they were disillusioned enough to stay at home at greater percentages than they usually do for the mid-terms they were no longer interested in politics (or they never were). The hero worship, as you note ( steady support ), lingers on, so each time Glenn Greenwald tweets in criticism a blatant Obama betrayal or ruthlessness, they retort with flames. I think ...

Document Size:	5573
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 06:18:11 PDT 2011

1811 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 7:36 AM, James Heartfield wrote: > if he didn t end the war in Afghanistan He certainly didn't. He expanded it. Doug

Document Size:	4664
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 06:16:13 PDT 2011

1812 [lbo-talk] Obama -- rank: 1000

On Jul 29, 2011, at 6:33 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote: > Doug & Carrol share another - uncomfortable as the may be for them It's not uncomfortable for me!

Document Size:	4559
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 29 04:51:39 PDT 2011

1813 [lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents -- rank: 1000

On Jul 28, 2011, at 5:27 PM, Julio Huato wrote: > Doug wrote: > >> Coates and Gary Younge gave me a hard time for not understanding >> how Obama had mobilized the youth of color. I argued that that >> didn't amount to a hill of beans - the "mobilization" was little more than a >> fan club, and Obama was just another DLC type, not much different in substance >> from Hillary Clinton. But to them, I was just a cranky old white intellectual >> elit ...

Document Size:	6364
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jul 28 15:52:18 PDT 2011

1814 [lbo-talk] It provokes screams from the left -- rank: 1000

On Jul 27, 2011, at 10:46 PM, SA wrote: > Right, that's Klein's explanation. And as the post said, maybe it will work. But the subtitle of the post was "a puzzle in the study of American politics." There's a reason for that: the claim you're making is that the voters might actually reward a politician for openly attacking their most important material interests in a way that they will notice and strongly object to because it will demonstrate the politician's "reasonableness.&qu ...

Document Size:	5888
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jul 27 20:16:47 PDT 2011

1815 [lbo-talk] What About This "Coin Seignoirage" Idea"? -- rank: 1000

On Jul 27, 2011, at 6:25 PM, Anthony Kennerson wrote: > This is an idea that has been getting some steam among some progs/lefties. > > Basically, the idea is that the President would order the Fed to mint a > platinum coin, load it up with an extraordinary value -- as in, the > TRILLIONS of dollars -- and them use it to swap out for Treasury notes of > the same value, which would be used to pay off the debt obligations I just finished editing an interview I did with Brad DeLong ...

Document Size:	5468
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jul 27 19:34:41 PDT 2011