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1 [lbo-talk] DC fires teachers -- rank: 1000

Rhee is still coasting on her rep as somebody who is shaking things up, which here means being willing to fire people. The Mayor backs her and so does the putrid WashPost. I don't follow DC ed so I don't know anything about what she is actually doing. The Mayor strikes me as a mini-Obama. Same vapid, centrist bullshit. My wife was in the DC teachers union up to 2003. It was an AFT local whose president and a couple of cronies were discovered to be robbing the organization blind. They got bus ...

Document Size:	6012
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Fri Jul 23 16:56:28 PDT 2010

2 [lbo-talk] On Sherrod matter -- rank: 1000

Maybe so, re: the media, though the evidence that has floated out is not that the WH intended to wait until the truth came out, but that they thought by throwing Sherrod out, fast, they would squash the racists' 'reverse racism' routine before it gathered any steam. Moreover, they could have told Sherrod, give us a resignation letter and hang loose, we'll rehire you tomorrow. Their reactions bespoke panic, not deliberation. On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 3:58 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrot ...

Document Size:	5297
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jul 22 13:10:14 PDT 2010

3 [lbo-talk] On Sherrod matter -- rank: 1000

Actually the WH would have drawn blood if they reacted -- correctly -- before everyone else figured out what was going on. That would have excited the hounds more and culminated in a more splendid comeuppance. Then it would have been a victory for Obama, instead of a saving grace. They could have linked it to the ACORN fraud too. Best defense a good offense and all. That's basically what Rove might have done to Rather, leak fake documents about a real deficiency of Bush, let them get hyped a ...

Document Size:	8169
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jul 22 11:49:00 PDT 2010

4 [lbo-talk] Why Marx is Right and Engels is Wrong -- rank: 1000

In matters of race, you're just an idiot. There is no comparison between white kids calling each other homeboy or the n-word and an anonymous person using homeboy in the context that you did. I give you the benefit of the doubt and imagine you don't know any better. It goes back to your exaggerated self-appraisal, which you yourself have confirmed. You need to realize, anonymous professions of moral uprightness and sophistication lack gravitas. As for favors, you'd do me one if you just went a ...

Document Size:	6888
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jul 15 12:46:45 PDT 2010

5 [lbo-talk] Why Marx is Right and Engels is Wrong -- rank: 1000

I don't think you are a racist; I think you succumbed to racist invective because you have an elevated opinion of yourself. There was a story once about a (tragically) hip white professor who used the n-word in his class, thinking he was down with the homeboys. He wasn't; he took a lot of flack for it. You have to earn the right to talk like that. You haven't. I do have a history like you mentioned, but long since I've acquired a notorious reputation for getting along with almost everybody, as ...

Document Size:	6836
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jul 15 12:10:44 PDT 2010

6 [lbo-talk] Why Marx is Right and Engels is Wrong -- rank: 1000

Angelus apparently thinks he is too hip for the room. IMO, the uninvited use of 'homeboy' is not very different from a similar use of the n-word. Obnoxious at the very least, also cowardly, since it would be unlikely to be used face-to-face if we were all in the same room. I would say racist too, since it is an attempt to dress down J with a minority group name, reducing him from Julio to a cliché. So I say this was a banishable offense to the list, not just to Julio, who can take care of hims ...

Document Size:	5491
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jul 15 08:34:00 PDT 2010

7 [lbo-talk] New blog on social security and the economy -- rank: 1000

Get rid of the state and let's have some big collective mutual aid, along with collective mutual taxes and collective mutual cops to make sure the taxes get collected. On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 12:22 PM, Chuck Munson <chuck0munson at gmail.com>wrote: > On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 11:02 AM, Mark Rickling <mrickling at gmail.com> > wrote: > > On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 11:54 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> > wrote: > > > >> I'm confused. Social Security ...

Document Size:	6358
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Fri Jul 9 09:30:28 PDT 2010

8 [lbo-talk] Laura somebody sucks -- rank: 1000

An alternative interpretation is that Obama knows very well the Afghan war can't end well, but he needed to support it in the campaign as a way to stick Bush ('wrong war') and present a side willing to deploy military force. He could possibly expect to draw this out long enough to get reelected, then bug out. All this would put him in Henry Kissinger/Christmas-bombing territory. On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 4:05 PM, Chuck Grimes <c123grimes at att.net> wrote: > > . . . . Obama obviously n ...

Document Size:	5006
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jul 1 13:30:52 PDT 2010

9 [lbo-talk] Move On: We Betray Ourselves -- rank: 1000

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 9:11 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote: . . . I have reminded my favorite crdackpot realist (Max) several times that > there is so way he can avoid being tarred by the brush I and others > provide the tar for. > > I am perfectly capable of tarring myself with my own tar, thank you very much.

Document Size:	4679
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Tue Jun 29 08:39:31 PDT 2010

10 [lbo-talk] 4th @ DC -- rank: 1000

You can ride Rock Creek Park all the way from the Washington Monument up to Rockville MD. Stop at the zoo on the way. On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Mark Rickling <mrickling at gmail.com> wrote: > There's also the C&O Canal towpath. The ride from Georgetown to the > Maryland side of Great Falls is around 14 miles I think one way. Not > paved so not really suitable for road bikes. > > http://bikewashington.org/canal/ > > On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 12:58 PM, shag carp ...

Document Size:	7010
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Mon Jun 28 11:06:42 PDT 2010

11 [lbo-talk] Defend SpinWatch's right to free speech! -- rank: 1000

My aged brain couldn't follow it, since there is a 'SpinWatch-Watch.' Like too many double-negatives. All I could get is that the younger Hitchens is as much of a dick as his poppy. On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote: > > On Thu, 24 Jun 2010, James Heartfield wrote [stuff about Spinwatch] > > James, although you've posted lots on SpinWatch on Facebook, it's not > readily skimmable -- it seems a little like sectarian inside baseball ...

Document Size:	5406
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Thu Jun 24 07:26:02 PDT 2010

12 [lbo-talk] Krugman: The Zombies Who Ate Alan Simpson's Brain -- rank: 1000

FYI, your 1st graph solution was proposed, ingeniously I believe, by Moynihan. He suggested the payroll tax be cut to eliminate the cash surpluses. Since there is in fact no separate stock of private sector assets, isn't the thrust of the Keynes point exactly the way the system works now? The only residual quibble would be that the payroll tax could be less regressive. As to whether the existence of a fund implies a crisis, that depends on the notional balance in the fund. If it looks good, by ...

Document Size:	7914
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Wed Jun 23 10:08:27 PDT 2010

13 [lbo-talk] Krugman: The Zombies Who Ate Alan Simpson's Brain -- rank: 1000

It is not lying to say the Fund has bonds, the law obliges the Gov to redeem the bonds, the law can be changed hence the status of the program depends on the program's political support. Wages depend on class struggle too, but you wouldn't say a wage increase is meaningless because it can be taken away. By contrast, it is inaccurate to say the bonds are worthless, any more than that bonds held by private parties are worthless. After all, the latter's value can be erased as well by political a ...

Document Size:	6159
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Wed Jun 23 09:13:06 PDT 2010

14 [lbo-talk] Krugman: The Zombies Who Ate Alan Simpson's Brain -- rank: 1000

Granted repayment or default on the bonds is a political matter, hence 'money of the mind,' but as Daniel Moynihan said in one of his infrequent spasms of lucidity, if people believe the Trust Fund is meaningless and the program broken, it's easier to take it away. Ergo dogging the Trust Fund is unhelpful. On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > > On Jun 23, 2010, at 9:35 AM, Shane Mage wrote: > > And in what way does that make T-Bonds i ...

Document Size:	5643
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Wed Jun 23 08:47:59 PDT 2010

15 [lbo-talk] Liu on Eurozone austerity -- rank: 1000

I offered to smoke the peace pipe with him; he refused. On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 9:35 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > > On Jun 20, 2010, at 9:16 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > > I forgot what got him the boot. Are you sure he didn't just un-sub? >>> >> >> Start here: >> >> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/1999/1999-June/011460.html >> > > Wow, that was a long time ago - forgot all that. HCKL's parting shot: > > http://m ...

Document Size:	6392
Author:	Max Sawicky
Date:	Mon Jun 21 16:39:05 PDT 2010