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5746 [lbo-talk] Reps in crisis! -- rank: 1000

On Feb 25, 2009, at 12:14 PM, Max Sawicky wrote: > Maybe it's just me, but I thought his initial anecdote about the > "bureaucrat" was transparently aimed at stupid people. But he seemed stupid himself. Not just in the usual Republican way, but in a sing-songy juvenile way. Liza thought he sounded Palinesque in the hick inflections. If this is their rising star, they're in even worse shape than I thought. I listened in on Stan Greenberg's instant polling report about a half h ...

Document Size:	5228
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 25 09:22:39 PST 2009

5747 [lbo-talk] Reps in crisis! -- rank: 1000

Wow. We thought Bobby Jindal sucked last night, but we're biased. But David Brooks agrees - nihilistic and insane! <http://gawker.com/5160135/even-republicans-didnt-know-why-jindal-was-talking-like-that >

Document Size:	4758
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 25 08:59:21 PST 2009

5748 [lbo-talk] self-promotional updates -- rank: 1000

Steve Perry interviews me on MinnPost: <http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/another-minnpost-interview/ >. And I've started a Facebook (blush) page for my radio show: <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53240558375 >.

Document Size:	4967
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 25 08:33:10 PST 2009

5749 [lbo-talk] The SMB in a socialist economy? -- rank: 1000

On Feb 25, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > Small business is the central and much revered icon of American > popular mythology - another one is the military. I see it as a > mixture of populist anti-intellectualism and xenophobia. And self-reliance. Emerson still lives. Doug

Document Size:	4995
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 25 07:56:29 PST 2009

5750 [lbo-talk] Fear of nationalization sets in -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 1:42 AM, Eric Beck wrote: > On 2/22/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > How do we get from the society we have to the >> one you want? Who will keep the electricity running? Will we have >> electricity? Do centralized generating plants just embody the crap >> hierarchies of capitalist society, so we should just replace them >> with >> rooftop solar panels made by small cooperative enterprises? > > Won't somebody pl ...

Document Size:	5478
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 13:18:56 PST 2009

5751 [lbo-talk] English on SEIU -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 4:02 PM, James Straub wrote: > One, unions already have a task at hand, know what they need to be > doing, and it's organizing. and > Two, most intellectuals have a particular ideological outlook in one > way or another. So the question of what flavor of intellectual > discourse to sponsor would be highly contentious. Very few union > members are trotskyites. A great many of them are actually > republicans. And a great many do not give two shits abou ...

Document Size:	5731
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 13:12:05 PST 2009

5752 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 3:03 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > You think that because you are resident in the USA, where the > working-class collapse also contributed to higher profit rates > alongside the rise of financial rates of return (the new Foster/ > Magdoff lays this out very nicely). Capital is a global relation, > and if you spent a bit of time with us in the southern hemisphere, > or the FSU, where we think of the 1980s-90s as the lost decades, > Doug, then you wouldn't talk ...

Document Size:	7092
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 12:16:45 PST 2009

5753 [lbo-talk] English on SEIU -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 2:43 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > James Straub wrote: > > >> For the record: I read books. Even ones with no pictures. All the >> way through. Proud of it. Enjoy it immensely. > > > The point is the claim that labor as an institution is anti- > intellectual and brain dead has been brought up here before and the > response is generally individualized, e.g. someting like what you > say here. And note that Jim says he'd rather go back to dis ...

Document Size:	5086
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 12:05:38 PST 2009

5754 [lbo-talk] Lenin and Hilferding -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 2:31 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > The antidote to such nonsense was a 1929 book by Heinrich Grossmann. > Right, James? And capitalism came back from 1929 stronger than ever, didn't it? Or have the last 80 years just been a perpetual displacement? Doug

Document Size:	4765
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 11:43:24 PST 2009

5755 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 2:20 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > And another point is temporal. You're looking at the last fifteen > years, whereas the overaccumulation problem that got all that > fictitious capital sliding into such zany circuitries - leading to > the current epiphenomenal financial crisis - goes back to the late > 1970s, and it was *then* that the overinvestment and excessive > production to meet intense competition signaled firms to slow fixed > capital investment. (Un ...

Document Size:	6062
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 11:41:32 PST 2009

5756 [lbo-talk] amazing! Rupe apologizes -- rank: 1000

<http://www.nypost.com/seven/02242009/news/regionalnews/statement_from_rupert_murdoch_156676.htm > STATEMENT FROM RUPERT MURDOCH By RUPERT MURDOCH Last updated: 3:16 am February 24, 2009 Posted: 2:22 am February 24, 2009 As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me. Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, an ...

Document Size:	5728
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 09:14:27 PST 2009

5757 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 2:56 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Yes, sustained overaccumulation in the US manufacturing sector is to > blame for subsequent periods of relatively low investment. We've > been saying all these things for some time - are you just getting it > now, Doug? Join us! This is preposterous. The U.S. manufacturing sector has been shrinking in relative terms for decades. A lot of Marxoids will tell you that's the fundamental problem - there's no real value production, just ...

Document Size:	5103
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 08:34:31 PST 2009

5758 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 12:07 AM, Charles Brown wrote: > _Imperialism_ sounds like it was > written today, if you stop and > think about it. It doesn't at all. I really have no idea what you're talking about. Following Hilferding, Lenin's world is one in which industry is controlled by banks. That's not true today - the relations between shareholders and managers are really complicated. It's also a world of monopolies and holding companies, but in fact there's a lot of competition in m ...

Document Size:	6614
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 08:29:32 PST 2009

5759 [lbo-talk] English on SEIU -- rank: 1000

On Feb 24, 2009, at 8:24 AM, Joseph Catron wrote: >> And one reason for this is that our labor movement is so braindead >> and >> anti-intellectual. > > > Would you care to elaborate on that, ot should the pronouncement > suffice? Gosh. You're right. I've forgotten all those vigorous newspapers, journals, websites, and TV shows the labor movement sponsors. And all the internal education of the members. And the way that the union leadership shows such a visionary ...

Document Size:	5094
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 08:14:21 PST 2009

5760 [lbo-talk] interesting appointment -- rank: 1000

<http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/02/22/obama-picks-israel-critic-for-senior-intelligence-post/ > OBAMA PICKS ISRAEL CRITIC FOR SENIOR INTELLIGENCE POST Feb 22nd, 2009 by Richard Silverstein 7 Oh, the Israel lobby is up in arms over this one! Former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas W. Freeman, will be appointed to head the National Intelligence Council. The Council prepares national intelligence estimates for the president, and in the Bush administration this beca ...

Document Size:	8289
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 24 08:04:28 PST 2009