Ted Rall: Corporate News Media: Don't Vote for Trump's Racist Lies, Vote for Someone Else's Racist Lies

Ted Rall writes that Corporate News Media: Don’t Vote for Trump’s Racist Lies, Vote for Someone Else’s Racist Lies.

The third problem with the “Trump bad” narrative is that, getting rid of a toxic strain in politics requires pumping up its alternative. This, the Times and other corporate media outlets never do.

There are hundreds of American newspapers. Not a single one ever runs an opinion essay by a communist, much less hires one as a columnist. Given that 11% of Americans are communist, 11% of published opinions should be pro-communist — and would be, if we had a free press.

There are hundreds of major broadcast and online news and politics outlets. None employ a self-identified socialist. 36% of Americans are socialist.

Communists, socialists and anarchists are the only major ideologies unequivocally opposed to the racist and Latinophobic and Islamophobic garbage Trump (and most other Republican candidates, and some Democrats) are spewing. Anyone who is serious about taking on this crap must support the real left.

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Rall is mistaking a positive view of something as being an active supporter of it. Having a favourable view of Socialism does not make one a Socialist.

The reason that Communists, socialists and anarchists are…unequivocally opposed to the racist and Latinophobic and Islamophobic garbage is that we want to build an inclusive society that is richer and fairer for all of us. We do this because of where we want to end up.

Rall forgets Malcolm X's dictum:

You cannot have Capitalism without Racism.

If yoy want to get rid of racism, you have to get rid of Capitalism.

This causes real agnst for liberals as they want to keep Capitalism, but do not want the rancidness of Racism permeating their nice, clean lives.

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Noah Smith: A big sweeping theory of modern history

Noah Smith describes his version of A big sweeping theory of modern history.

Here's a Big Sweeping Theory that I've been toying with. There are lots of theories of the cycle of rise and decline of empires in the agricultural, premodern world. I'd like to create a parallel theory of low-frequency cycles (or, more accurately, long-term impulse responses to stochastic technology shocks) in the modern, industrialized world.

It's possible to see the convulsions of the World Wars and the Great Depression as a one-time event — part of the growing pains of the industrial revolution, not to be repeated. But what if some of the core features of those events are actually part of a cycle? Here's a sketch of how that cycle might work:

Smith's model consists of seven (7) main phases:

1. Technological Change.
2. Globalization.
3. ?
1. Inequality.
2. Cultural Change.
3. Financialization.
4. Geopolitical Shifts.
4. Rise of Extremism.
5. Economic Slowdown.
6. War.
7. New Order.

The interesting thing is that Smith does not have an explanation for Phase 5: Economic Slowdown. Marxists do: the rate of profit declines below the necessary rate required for reproduction of Capital. In other words, Capitalists will not invest if the rate of return does not allow to get their money back within the foreseeable future. In normal times, this future is about five (5) years. In times of stress, this can drop to little as a year.

The alternative view of history is provided by Marx in which the driver of human history is class conflict. The economic organization of society creates classes which come into conflict over the distribution of the economic output. A political and ideological superstructure is created to contain this conflict. Breakdown of the system occurs when this superstructure cannot adapt fast enough to the changes in the economic organization of society.

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Mark Thoma: 'What Is Holding Back the Economy?'

Mark Thoma asks 'What Is Holding Back the Economy?'.

Not the first to say this, but the problem is that Republicans have misrepresented the causes of the distress so many households feel, in particular scapegoating those who have it even worse as somehow responsible for their problems (and the decline of America more generally). And then they sell the solutions as benefiting the middle class (trickle down anyone?) when they are really directed at reducing taxes for those at the top, and reducing the government services that people rely upon to survive in this economy to support the tax cuts.

But there is something else I'd like to note. The problem is blamed on government at all levels, and fiscal policy. We hear, when Republicans are named at all, that it is "especially" Republicans as though the balance only tilts in one direction. No, it's not especially Republicans, or even mostly Republicans that are standing in the way of doing more to help those who are struggling to make ends meet. It is Republicans. It's not congressional gridlock based upon reasonable differences over policy that cannot be resolved through compromise, it's an active attempt by one party to block anything the other party tries to do, even if it might help people economically. So long as the political benefits of this behavior — benefits based upon selling snake oil for the most part — exceed the economic costs of inaction, Republicans will stand in the way (all the while trying to convince those who are hurt the most by their actions that they will actually be helped). It's time to stop blaming "government" as though that is what is dysfunctional. The dysfunction, as evidenced by the slate of, and preferences over Republican presidential candidates, is in the Republican party. Their actions since the onset of the Great Recession have, in my view, hurt people who should have been helped, slowed the recovery, and diverted our attention from the true problems we face making it impossible to solve them (not that Republicans would have gone along with the solutions anyway). If this election tears Republicans apart and strips them of this ability to stand in the way of helping the working class, a dream I know, I will not be shedding tears. Quite the opposite.

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This is class warfare. The Capitalists are ruthlessly exploiting the Workers far more than necessary for the basic operation. This is exploitation for exploitation's sake.

With the destruction of the union movement and associated political movements, the Capitalists are rampaging unchecked taking a significant section of the working class along with them.

I do not share Thoma's tact belief that the Democratic Party is any better. They are also a Capitalist party, although less prone to rampaging.

The solution lies outside of Capitalism. This is something that nearly all workers will not consider. For them, Communism and Socialism are still evil as they think these systems prevent them from becoming rich.

The workers think they achieve a better outcome by becoming richer individuals instead of being part of a society that is richer and distributes its benefits more fairly.

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Juan Cole: Why did Turkey dare shoot down a Russian Plane? The Proxy War in Syria

Juan Cole asks Why did Turkey dare shoot down a Russian Plane? The Proxy War in Syria.

We may conclude that Russia’s targeting of Turkmen, an ethnic group that speaks a language similar to that spoken in Turkey, raised nationalist hackles in Ankara. But in addition, these Syrian Turkmen are religious, just as is the leadership of the ruling AKP in Turkey. And, further, they are a linchpin for Turkish, American and Saudi intervention in Syria, since they appear to be among the arms smugglers getting munitions to the rebels against the al-Assad government. Although the CIA maintains that these weapons only go to some 45 “vetted” groups that are not extremists, they in fact get into the hands of al-Qaeda and its allies, grouped as the Army of Conquest, as well. Russia must defeat the Army of Conquest and protect the Alawites of Latakia if it is to achieve its war aims in Syria, and appears to have decided to begin by blocking Turkmen smuggling. The Turkmen had their revenge, claiming to have killed one or both of the pilots who ejected from the downed fighter jet and also taking down a Russian helicopter that attempted to rescue them. [Update: Russia later rescued both pilots, who are actually unharmed.]

Russia and Turkey are now fighting a proxy war in Syria, and have been all this fall. As of yesterday, they are not just using proxies, but are directly in conflict with one another.

Turkey and the Turkmen are carving out a sphere of influence in northern Syria and are insisting that Russia recognize it. How severe the conflict becomes depends in part on how Russia responds to this setback for its war aims. It also depends on whether Turkish goals are more ambitious, to help the al-Qaeda-led Army of Conquest take Latakia. If Jabal Turkmen is a red line for Turkey, Latakia port is a red line for Russia. Red lines have a way of turning into hot wars.

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Turkey was able to do this because it has the backing of the USA. Any retaliation by Russia means direct conflict with the USA. An indirect way would be for Russia to overtly support Kurdish rights in Turkey. And covertly support the Kurdish militias.

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SMH: Face of Reclaim Australia rally Nathan Paterson insists: I'm not racist

Face of Reclaim Australia rally Nathan Paterson insists: I'm not racist

He insisted he was not racist, referring to his friendship with the Bangladeshi owner of the kebab shop that he frequents.

In a way, Paterson is correct. He does not hate or hurt people because of their race. He is not a racist in the concrete sense.

There is a scale of concrete racism:

1. Someone who kills a person because they are of a different race
2. Someone who assaults a person because they are of a different race
3. Someone who insults a person because they are of a different race
4. Someone who is rude to a person because they are of a different race
5. Someone who avoids a person because they are of a different race
6. Someone who hates a person because they are of a different race
7. Someone who dislikes a person because they are of a different race
8. Someone who discriminates against a person because they are of a different race
9. Someone who encourages concrete racism
10. Someone who condones concrete racism
11. Someone who protects concrete racism

Concrete racism occurs someone takes action to harm another based on their race. There is no evidence that Paterson has done any of these things, nor condone anyone doing such things.

Yet. he has a partial glimpse of the truth:

He has been trying to find Housing NSW accommodation for several months and has been told it could take more than 10 years to find the permanent two-bedroom home he would like to have so that the younger of his two sons can stay with him on weekends.

It's that struggle that has led him to believe governments - whether local, state or federal - aren't doing enough to help "everyday Australians".

"The government needs to start looking after its own people," he said.

"Newcastle council want to let some of those 12,000 Syrian refugees come to settle here, but there isn't even any housing for Australian people."

He points to the discrimination by Australian governments in the area of housing. He has the keen sense to recognize that there should be suitable housing for everyone.

Because of the government's war on the poor, he is unable to secure suitable housing. It is this scarity of housing that bringing up the abstract racism in him. The government is indirectly creating racism through housing scarity.

Yes, he is a racist in the abstract sense:

"They're all over in their countries blowing each other up, and they want to bring all that here. I say just leave them there."

Yet, how can he not feel this way when the media and government continually say the same thing? Why is he labelled a racist when he just repeats what people of importance say the same thing?

Paterson is being manipulated into becoming a racist of a deeper hue through the policies and actions of the government, and the blanket propaganda of the media.

The only hope for him to grasp the unpopular idea that everyone is a human being deserving of the same dignity and rights.

Even this simple act will be corroded by the simple fact of trying to survive in an economic and political system that is built on and needs racism.

You cannot get rid of racism by hounding people like Paterson, but through the revolutionary overthrow of Capitalism.

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Seth Godin: A reason persuasion is surprisingly difficult

Seth Godin gives A reason persuasion is surprisingly difficult.

To many people, it feels manipulative or insincere or even morally wrong to momentarily take the other person's point of view when trying to advance an argument that we already believe in.

And that's one reason why so many people claim to not like engaging in marketing. Marketing is the empathetic act of telling a story that works, that's true for the person hearing it, that stands up to scrutiny. But marketing is not about merely sharing what you, the marketer believes. It's about what we, the listener, believe.

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This is sound advice for revolutionaries. We must thoroughly understand the world that a worker inhabits.

The best way is for us to be workers ourselves and engage other workers in political discussions based on our shared experiences.

Although we tend to inflate ourselves with our supposed superior political education, we would be wasting everyone's time if we approached every political discussion as it were an internal party debate.

As Ted Rall points out in Bernie Sanders is a Socialist and So Are You:

As far as I know, Bernie hasn’t emphasized the quality of public education in his campaign. But something is, no pun intended, radically wrong when so few Americans understand basic political and economic terms — especially when they apply to the political and economic system under which they themselves live.

By global standards, Sanders’ campaign is calling for weak socialist tea. In most European countries, all colleges are free or charge nominal fees. Socialized medicine, in which your doctor is a government employee and there’s no such thing as a big for-profit hospital corporation, is the international norm. Paid leave? Obviously. And most governments recognize the importance of public infrastructure, and not relying on the private sector to provide every job.

There can only be one reason Americans don’t know this stuff: they’re idiots. Their schools made them that way as kids. Media propaganda keeps them stupid as adults.

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So, we face a populace that is intentionally crippled in political thinking. Yes, we can decry their political idiocracy. But these people are the foundations that a Socialist revolution must be built upon.

To mis-quote Donald Rumsfeld:

As you known, you go into a revolution with the people as they are, not the people you might want or wish to have at a later time.

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