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S. Artesian | 1 Dec 01:06
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Re: New U.S. Mortgage Crisis Looms

While Volcker makes me puke, as I'm sure he makes Mark and the whole list 
puke, I don't know why Gary is so surprised by the warm reception Volcker 
has received, and that the Marxists aren't running through the streets 
telling everyone, based on this selection,  "See, we told you so.."

He was Fed chairman under Reagan and given the exalted status Reagan has 
with both parties, Wall Street, Main Street, Kansas and Connecticut, it 
don't think it surprised anyone in the US that he would be a voice in the 
formation of economic policy.

Now if Obama had selected that equivocating, obfuscating hack Greenspan, now 
that would have been a surprise.

There is no point to attacking Volcker for his appointment now, as if 
appointing somebody else would make a bit of difference.

Or...we can put this another way--the attack on Volcker for what he did to 
the US in the 1980s; to Africa; to Latin America is no more and no less 
warranted than attacking Geithner, Summers, Gates, etc.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary MacLennan" <gary.maclennan1 <at> gmail.com>
To: <sartesian <at> earthlink.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] New U.S. Mortgage Crisis Looms

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Louis Proyect | 1 Dec 01:07
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Swans Release: December 1, 2008

Swans Commentary
http://www.swans.com/
December 1, 2008

                                                 $ $ $ $ $

*Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!* Put it this way: Over 700,000 people voted for
Ralph Nader. Not all read Swans, of course, but thousands do. If only 14 of
them give $250 we can reach our $3,500 goal to minimally cover our operating
expenses for another year (actual costs are closer to $5,000). Think about it
another way: Even if you did not vote for Nader you can help. After all,
twice a month you still have the opportunity to read independent and creative
points of view, right? So, please, do your part to help keep this flock of
ideas, opinions, thoughts, and culture flying. Please Donate Now!
http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html

                                                 $ $ $ $ $

Note from the Editors:  It used to be, here in the west, that when one
thought about stampedes it was in the form of a herd of cattle gone astray in
a Gene Autry movie, or more recently, some crazed Latin football fans
storming the field when their team let them down. In today's climate the
stampede takes on a sickening twist, with turkey-stuffed American shoppers
breaking down the doors of Wal*Mart and trampling to death the poor employee
that stands between them and the flat-screen TV of their dreams. Did they
return home with their bounty, turn it on, and witness the tragedy in Mumbai
where apparent Westerners and the wealthy were singled out for kidnap and
slaughter inside India's icon of luxury? Patterns which connect, anyone? Jan
Baughman examines American society's moral hazard, where 37 million people
live in poverty and 32 people live with $573 billion; where Wall Street is
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S. Artesian | 1 Dec 01:14
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Re: Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony in Cuba

That's wonderful news.  I was thinking that something, something I couldn't 
identify, was missing from the list... and then this post made it all so 
clear.. the list was lacking spiritualism.

Castro attends a beatification ceremony for a church that parceled out 
slaving contracts around the world. Beatification?  Well there's a blow for 
science and emancipation.

But it's OK, because this saint ministered to the poor during the 1868-1878 
struggles.

That is so uplifting.

Can we get a picture when Raul goes to communion?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Walter Lippmann" <walterlx <at> earthlink.net>
To: <sartesian <at> earthlink.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 6:27 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony in Cuba

> One of the many persistent slanders against the Cuba revolution is
> that there is no religious freedom on the island. In addition, the
> persistence of religious belief among human beings is a challenge
> which some on the political left find extremely hard to comprehend or
> relate to. Since the Pope's visit to Cuba in 1998, relations with the
> Roman Catholic Church have warmed up quite a bit. After John Paul's
> death, Fidel was quick to invite his successor, Benedict, to visit
> there. And earlier this year, the Vatican Foreign Minister, Cardinal
> Tarcisio Bertone, spent a very productive and very well-publicized
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S. Artesian | 1 Dec 01:18
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Re: Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony inCuba

Forgot to clip.  My apologies.  I was just so moved by the spirit.....

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Joaquin Bustelo | 1 Dec 02:06
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Re: New U.S. Mortgage Crisis Looms

Gary writes, "What dismays me is that a Volcker appointment was  even
possible." 

Perhaps the attitude is different here about presidential appointments
versus cabinet choices in Oz. Most people don't know or care who Volcker is
or what he did before.  Moreover, Obama's cabinet is being projected as a
"team of adversaries" or some such thing, where the president will get a
range of contradictory opinions and no individual appointment or collection
of them is being presented or viewed as being particularly notable or
significant in terms of the direction of policy, except by a few radicals
and liberals who are now quite likely reading too much into his appointments
just as before they were reading too much into his promises. 

Especially when dealing with the tons of appointments a new administration
makes, singling out a Volcker or a Clinton or a what-his-name from the New
York Fed or even a Gates to mount a campaign against just wouldn't make
sense to people here. For one thing, it is the president that sets policy,
EVERYONE in the executive branch at that level serves at his pleasure, and
Obama is not yet the president and hasn't done anything. You say "we should
be on the attack," but just what do you propose to attack? 

All the tea leaves point to the centerpiece of the new President's agenda
being a more-or-less comprehensive package of measures to deal with the
deepening economic downturn and the financial panic that set it off. What
that package will look like will be determined by what the economy looks
like in January and some political calculations about what he might be able
to get through Congress. 

When he unveils that package shortly after the inauguration we will see.
Even then, the strong tendency among regular people will be to let the new
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Louis Proyect | 1 Dec 02:34
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Re: New U.S. Mortgage Crisis Looms

Joaquin wrote:
>except by a few radicals and liberals who are now quite likely 
>reading too much into his appointments
>just as before they were reading too much into his promises.

That's a relief. Here I was getting all pissed off by the appointment 
of an anti-immigration hard-liner to head up Homeland Security when I 
should have known better. I guess after Jan. 20 we'll see the real 
Obama, somebody who will pay back all the Latinos who voted for him. 
And they will get paid back, you can be sure. 

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Gary MacLennan | 1 Dec 02:55
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Re: New U.S. Mortgage Crisis Looms

Ok Mark

I am counting to ten every time I read your posts.  I think I need to go to
like 100.  You are missing the point entirely.   Yet what I am saying is
simple.  Any talk of giving Obama lebensraum is a diasastrous mistake.  We
should begin with the premise that he is as Joaquin has pointed out a
bourgeois politician.  Throw in the fact that he is from the Democrat Party.
Nuff said for me.  Of course I know there are more subtle thinkers on the
list and I can antifipate them saying bourgeois politicians come in
different shades. True - they can range from fairly harmless to disastrous.

Nevertheless I am at a total loss when you talk of "trying to understand the
motives behind these appointments".  Where in the name of Jayzuss is the
mystery about Volcker?

Now you suggest that I am in the middle of a project of emotional
self-gratification. Grrh!! [one, two ,three, four,  five......].

Let me try once more.  We are in a political and economic conjuncture where
we should be upping our demands not waiting for Volcker & co.  [Sweet Mary I
cannot believe I have to write that!] There is no way that a bourgeois
politician at this time will be harmless unless he or she is confronted with
a radical movement that has at its core a true understanding of and contempt
for capitalism.  How can such a movement be built if we spend one moment
trying to puzzle out what Volcker &co will do?  How can our responsibility
to the international movement be fulfilled if we spend a nano second even
trying to work out what Hilary Clinton and Gates will do?

Now S.Artesian and Joaquin have also penned something on my previous post.
I have to defer of course to what American comrades think is possible in the
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Walter Lippmann | 1 Dec 03:02
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Re: Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony in Cuba

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the most important states
on the international map and it maintains normal diplomatic
relationships with revolutionary Cuba. When many countries 
broke with Cuba, the Vatican retained diplomatic ties, and,
indeed the Vatican has had unbroken diplomatic relations 
with Cuba since 1935. Spain, by the way, also retained ties
with Cuba all through these years, yes, including during the
last years of the Franco regime. 

When Pope John Paul visited Cuba in 1998, it was an important
blow against the blockade, highlighting its arbitrary, absurd
character. When Pope John Paul died, the Cuban leadership in
most demonstrative ways marked and publicly mourned his death:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/pope.html

Sarcastican sneers at Cuba's leadership highlighting the role
this Roman Catholic priest played in the national struggle for
a free, sovereign and independent Cuba in the 19th century.
Sarcastican fails to appreciate the Cuban revolutionary view
that the Revolution which continues today did not begin in
1959 or 1953, but rather it began on October 10, 1968, with
the first Cuban independence war. That war lasted ten years.

It was defeated because of lack of national unity among the
combatants. Building the maximum national unity in the fight
to obtain and maintain Cuba's national sovereignty was the
most central of all of Jose Marti's political concepts, one
of no interest to the likes of our friend Sarcastican.

The importance of the studying, and indeed of living up to
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Ron J | 1 Dec 03:06
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Re: Obama and the anti-war movement

I believe this is one of the reasons for the upcoming conference.  If it 
isn't there are people attending who plan to make it part of the agenda.

Les Schaffer wrote:
> Ron J wrote:
>   
>> here's their statement:
>>
>> http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3974
>>     
>
>
> seems like pure hot air to me. totally uninspiring. do they have a 
> specific plan of action?
>
> Les
>
> ________________________________________________
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>
>   
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Adam Richmond | 1 Dec 03:21
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Re: Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony in Cuba

Raul is the head of state and as such should be at national religious gatherings.  His presence is a signal
that freedom of religion should be tolerated.  I view this as a positive development. 

--- On Sun, 11/30/08, S. Artesian <sartesian <at> earthlink.net> wrote:
From: S. Artesian <sartesian <at> earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony in Cuba
To: "Adam Richmond" <adambrichmond <at> yahoo.com>
Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 4:14 PM

That's wonderful news.  I was thinking that something, something I
couldn't 
identify, was missing from the list... and then this post made it all so 
clear.. the list was lacking spiritualism.

Castro attends a beatification ceremony for a church that parceled out 
slaving contracts around the world. Beatification?  Well there's a blow for

science and emancipation.

But it's OK, because this saint ministered to the poor during the 1868-1878

struggles.

That is so uplifting.

Can we get a picture when Raul goes to communion?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Walter Lippmann" <walterlx <at> earthlink.net>
To: <sartesian <at> earthlink.net>
(Continue reading)

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