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2356 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 11:22 AM, SA wrote: > On 8/18/2011 11:14 AM, Doug Henwood wrote: > >> That's a different point. Starting with the Reagan buildup, the Soviet elite worried about falling technologically behind the U.S. in the arms race. That was one of the prods to "reform." > > Sure, it was a prod to "reform," but not system-changing reform. It was a prod to the traditional sort of "let's find new bright ideas to improve our technology" type of ...

Document Size:	6234
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 08:41:07 PDT 2011

2357 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 11:12 AM, // ravi wrote: > On Aug 18, 2011, at 8:15 AM, Jim Farmelant wrote: >> >> Which raises the question as to why China was able to adapt >> and thrive, whereas the Soviet Union collapsed. > > Population, I would think? If you call what is happening in China thriving, that is. I saw Stanley Fischer give a thinly attended press conference at the World Bank/IMF annual meetings in the early 1990s - can't remember what year exactly. Fischer said th ...

Document Size:	5675
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 08:21:58 PDT 2011

2358 [lbo-talk] TP & race -- rank: 1000

This just in, via Facebook: > Ishmael Reed > > two stock analysts on cnn this a.m. blamed market plunge on the tea party's rick perry calling the fed chairman a traitor,partially.this clown mocked obama's warning that he should watch what he says.his tea party followers view white supremacy as being more important than the value of their portfolios. This is the absurd place that a race-based critique of the TP will take you. What does "white supremacy" have to do with Perry's ...

Document Size:	5040
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 08:19:12 PDT 2011

2359 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 11:03 AM, SA wrote: > For what it's worth, here's Archie Brown: > >> The Cold War almost certainly did more to keep Communist systems going than to bring them down. The ever-present threat of an external enemy was used as a justification for highly authoritarian (at times totalitarian) rule. Political dissent was portrayed as a betrayal of the 'socialist motherland' and the external threat was used to justify censorship and restrictions on foreign travel. What Com ...

Document Size:	6008
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 08:14:53 PDT 2011

2360 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 10:40 AM, SA wrote: > On 8/18/2011 10:28 AM, Doug Henwood wrote: > >> There was that Cold War thing. They were afraid of the US. > > Their fear of the US had the opposite effect. When Reagan made threatening noises it made MG pull back on reform. He's said so himself. No, I'm thinking earlier - the early 80s buildup. Later in the 80s, Reagan & Gorby plotted to eliminate nuclear weapons. Doug

Document Size:	5325
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 07:51:33 PDT 2011

2361 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 10:35 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > Two words, "bureaucratic collectivism" is better. > > On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 10:27 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > >> As three-word descriptions go, "deformed workers' state" isn't bad. There was a lot more "state" than "collectivism." Doug

Document Size:	5335
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 07:39:02 PDT 2011

2362 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 10:12 AM, SA wrote: > This idea that they had no choice - it's wrong. You talk as if dictatorships faced with stagnant economies automatically feel compelled to undertake more and more radical reform until they either collapse or the problem is solved. But they don't. They usually try to stand pat, change as little as possible, and clamp down on any dissent. Of course, that strategy itself can eventually prove self-defeating *if* the underlying problems are sufficiently gr ...

Document Size:	5597
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 07:28:26 PDT 2011

2363 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 9:56 AM, SA wrote: > At first it gave me pause to read that BK said this before Gorby's radical turn. But then I thought - a Trot *would* say that, wouldn't he? Wasn't that always their line? A stopped clock... I dunno, Trots can be right sometimes. As three-word descriptions go, "deformed workers' state" isn't bad. > On the CPSU bureaucracy: that's exactly the point. It was a *top-down* bureaucracy, and Gorbachev was the top. I'm no Sovietologist, but I don' ...

Document Size:	6380
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 07:27:23 PDT 2011

2364 [lbo-talk] Are Conservatives Racist? -- rank: 1000

My memory of Obama's speeches to black audiences is correct. Adolph Reed writes: > From what I understand it got a thunderous ovation whenever he presented it. > The Popeye's for breakfast reference was at a church in Beaumont TX. He did > more of the Pookie stuff at a black holyroller church in Chicago in his > odious Father's Day speech, and he got a standing O for his scolding > exhortations to black personal responsibility at his speech to the 2008 > NAACP convention. Doug

Document Size:	5037
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 06:42:41 PDT 2011

2365 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 7:58 AM, SA wrote: > On 8/18/2011 7:53 AM, Doug Henwood wrote: > >> On Aug 18, 2011, at 1:09 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: >> >>> But the question wasn't whether Gorbachev was "good" or a "loser," but >>> rather how important he was. >> Wasn't he the tool of a CPSU that had pretty much decided that it wanted to end Communism and be like, say, the Christian Democrats in Germany? That's what I got from Boris Kagarlitsky ...

Document Size:	6011
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 05:58:28 PDT 2011

2366 [lbo-talk] Are Conservatives Racist? -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 7:48 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > To me it reflects a certain brand of capitalist ideology prevalent all > across the U.S. ideological spectrum. The greatest proponent is that great > "racist" admonisher of young black men, Barack Obama. And wouldn't a lot of middle- and upper-status blacks agree with him? Didn't he get big applause for all his Cousin Pookie talk? Doug

Document Size:	4957
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 05:04:05 PDT 2011

2367 [lbo-talk] Gorbachev: I Should Have Left the Communist Party Earlier -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2011, at 1:09 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > But the question wasn't whether Gorbachev was "good" or a "loser," but > rather how important he was. Wasn't he the tool of a CPSU that had pretty much decided that it wanted to end Communism and be like, say, the Christian Democrats in Germany? That's what I got from Boris Kagarlitsky when there still was a USSR. Doug

Document Size:	5254
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 18 04:53:49 PDT 2011

2368 [lbo-talk] new radio product -- rank: 1000

On Aug 17, 2011, at 12:32 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote: > I'd like to hear from Schalit or somebody else with close ties or contact with Israel about the demos against the government on economic problems in Israel. Coming up on the next show. Doug

Document Size:	4705
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 17 10:49:11 PDT 2011

2369 [lbo-talk] My latest on Libya -- rank: 1000

On Aug 16, 2011, at 9:11 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote: > Molto grazie; mille bacci! mg;mb. Prego.

Document Size:	4639
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 16 18:28:32 PDT 2011

2370 [lbo-talk] My latest on Libya -- rank: 1000

On Aug 16, 2011, at 8:39 PM, // ravi wrote: > On Aug 16, 2011, at 8:31 PM, Doug Henwood wrote: >> On Aug 16, 2011, at 7:39 PM, // ravi wrote: >> >>> tl;dr? I can t keep up with you kids and your terminology. Get on Instapaper, brah! >> >> Too long; didn't read. > > > I do know of Google, you know :-), but I also do appreciate the effort. I figured you did, but there are hundreds of readers out there who'd rather have the footnote.

Document Size:	5035
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 16 17:45:33 PDT 2011