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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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What worries me is that he seems to presume that, because his crazy, bull-in-a-china-shop approach to international relations seems to have worked out ok one time in one context, doing the same in a completely different one will have the same result. At best, it's all empty posturing and will be seen as such on both sides; but what really worries me is whether this sudden aggression against Iran will empower the hardliners and see Iran take a more aggressive approach in turn. Let's not forget that Rouhani, for all his own belligerent rhetoric at times, is the moderate in the Iranian political context. _________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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roar
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
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You can tell he is feeling the pinch when he starts threatening other countries. For some reason, war gets enough Americans excited to reinstate the sitting President. Hopefully, Trump starts feeling comfortable again, otherwise we could well see a war start. _________________ kill for collingwood! |
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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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What with his sabre-rattling against Iran, and the Democrats' sabre-rattling against Iran's sponsors, Russia, this is a pretty dangerous situation all round. _________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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swoop42
Whatcha gonna do when he comes for you?
Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Location: The 18
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Trump is merely doing what he always does when he is receiving negative headlines of a personal nature and that is to create even bigger world headlines. _________________ He's mad. He's bad. He's MaynHARD! |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Between London and Melbourne
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swoop42 wrote: | Trump is merely doing what he always does when he is receiving negative headlines of a personal nature and that is to create even bigger world headlines. |
I suspect he will make noise regardless of the quality of his headlines : his raison d’etre is ego. If he is getting positive headlines, he’ll be just as loud. _________________ Two more flags before I die! |
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Jezza
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Between London and Melbourne
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Economic statistics are soap bubbles on the surface of history. Wait til the tariff bullshit bites. The 4.1% growth rate is Trump’s equivalent of Buckley’s 2012 Prelim. _________________ Two more flags before I die! |
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Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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So, he’s doing the best economic job by any President since the last President? |
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David
to wish impossible things
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: the edge of the deep green sea
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The most brutal and brilliantly argued takedown of “Russiagate” that I’ve read yet.
https://overland.org.au/2018/08/scoundrel-time-from-the-rosenbergs-to-russiagate/
Quote: | The election of Donald Trump rightly dismayed leftists everywhere. But a certain kind of liberal greeted the result not as a political setback but as something more like a category error.
Managerial Democrats – and the social layer associated with them – fetishised expertise and control, priding themselves both on their skills in tending a neoliberal economy and their ability to corral the public into voting the correct way. For such people, Trump’s victory over Clinton, the far more qualified candidate, represented a rift in the fabric of reality itself, not so much because of Trump’s bigotry but because of the populist campaign with which he triumphed against the business and media consensus for the Democrats.
[...]
Hofstadter argued that the conspiracist engages in a form of projection, positing his enemy as someone who ‘wills, indeed … manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history’. The Clintonites did precisely that, attributing the 2016 result to a nefarious but skillful intervention by a rival state in a way that salvaged their entire political philosophy.
If Russia had stolen the election, managerialist liberalism hadn’t been discredited at all. Rather, its exponents had been temporarily outmaneouvred by an especially fiendish opponent – an outcome that made perfect sense to them. |
_________________ "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence." – Julian Assange |
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Jezza
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End
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Good article.
It's not often we agree politically David, but I agree with you on "Russiagate" 100%. _________________ | 1902 | 1903 | 1910 | 1917 | 1919 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1935 | 1936 | 1953 | 1958 | 1990 | 2010 | 2023 | |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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Glad to hear it. |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Between London and Melbourne
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“Brilliantly argued” ? I could not see much actual argument in there at all, just a series of statements which fit almost any set of circumstances which resulted in Trump winning. The premise of the article is that the public’s disillusion with “managerial neoliberalism” (a rather vague term which probably means something like “anything except Sanders” to the author) is the real reason that Trump won, and any other explanation is just hiding that fact. The argument thus seems to be “here is my explanation, and any other reasons you adduce are just deflections from my master-key. This master key, by the way, cannot be disproved”. It’s a pretty classic Marxist gambit.
I happen to agree that “managerial neoliberalism” seems an increasingly threadbare philosophy. I also think that the characterisation of Russia in the West is often a little hysterical. However, if there is evidence that Trump’s campaign actively colluded with the Russian security services to damage Clinton, then this is a legitimate matter of concern and a serious discredit to Trump’s legitimacy. That, surely, is the real point. _________________ Two more flags before I die!
Last edited by Mugwump on Sat Aug 04, 2018 6:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Jezza
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End
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Mugwump wrote: | I also think that the characterisation of Russia in the West is often a little hysterical. However, if there is evidence that Trump’s campaign actively colluded with the Russian security services to damage Clinton, then this is a legitimate matter of concern and a serious discredit to Trump’s legitimacy. That, surely, is the real point. |
I don't think anyone disputes it's a matter of serious concern if there is evidence supporting the notion that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian security services to interfere in the US' electoral process. If such evidence is corroborated and established, then Trump will have serious questions to answer.
However, the Mueller investigation still hasn't been able to find any evidence to support this premise and we're now 14 months into this continual and seemingly never ending investigation. The cynic in me believes that much of the investigation is 'politically motivated' and set up by the 'deep state' to delegitimise the Trump presidency.
It's not some sort of top secret that Russia preferred Trump over Clinton, and there's every chance that they may have actively attempted to interfere in the electoral process. However, it's one thing to say that a foreign power has attempted to interfere in another's electoral process, but another thing to suggest that Trump and his team were actively colluding with the Russians. I just think the double standards from the Americans is astounding considering they've had a long history of interfering in the electoral processes of countries for decades.
Time will tell how this transpires. _________________ | 1902 | 1903 | 1910 | 1917 | 1919 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1935 | 1936 | 1953 | 1958 | 1990 | 2010 | 2023 | |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Between London and Melbourne
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I think you make a different point, Jezza,which is that it may not be true. Quite a different point to this article.
As regards foreign interference, well, I think you are being a bit ahistorical. The Us did interfere in other nations’ government, at a time when it was in a power struggle with a despotism called the Soviet Union which was very much in the same business, but with far greater coercive, imperialist intent once it established a foothold. The US was right to get involved in actions to block the spread of Warsaw-pact style tyranny. It was wrong to do so in Iraq, because Saddam was not a threat to the democratic world in the way that Soviet Russia was.
However, the fact that the Us played this role elsewhere does not mean that it should not resist that role being played within its own democracy. If that invovles double standards, then what single standard would be acceptable ? _________________ Two more flags before I die!
Last edited by Mugwump on Sun Aug 05, 2018 12:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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I personally agree with the bits about Nefarious Russia and managerial Democrats, but that doesn't eliminate reality as it exists in the heads of vast swathes of mainstream America.
From that POV, after decades of deranged bleating about Russia, the Republican Party is in bed with someone who has conspired and would conspire with anyone anywhere in a heartbeat. To frame this as conspiracy theory when both Trump and this sort Russia paranoia have been mainstream American TV for decades is nonsensical.
Of course you've got to attack the bastards on this front, especially when they've just signed tax cuts into existence that will destroy social mobility for a generation. But it's only one front, and certainly no substitute for a serious policy platform. _________________ In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
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