There is possibly no country on earth more misunderstood - and more foreign to us westerners - than the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea). I wonder how many people on this list have ever talked to or even met a North Korean - or anyone who has lived or spent any amount of time there outside of an escorted press trip. The father of a good friend of mine lived there for a few years in the 1970s (I will never forget his wonderfully insightful stories of life there - YES, there is life there, despite what the western press …
All 65 comments by...
Anarcho-Sozi
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Bravo, Kaw Valley Kid! Maybe you Americans aren't all as hoodwinked as we think...
Posted to Cult of Ideology
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So what are you saying, Wolf???!!! Is war okay or isn't it? And as far as WP is concerned: it pains me as a total rejecter of the notion of a death penalty even to pose this question, but is there a difference between a firing squad that shoots its victim through the heart and one that sprays WP on the victim so as to cause an indescribably painful death? It seems that you would answer this question in the negative. And why is terrorism, which can target only a limited number of civilians, more vile than the war machines of …
Posted to White Phosphorous Lies
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On the question of the definition of "terrorism": Chomsky has been saying it for decades: when "they" murder innocent civilians in cold blood it is terrorism. When "we" do it is a justifiable and morally pure. Check out his classic discussions of Reagan's self-proclaimed "year of the war on terror" (sometime in the early 1980s, I forget which year), where he shows that the three main candidates for the prize of carrying out the most deadly terrorist act were the CIA, the CIA and Mossad/CIA. If there were any justice in this world, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the whole crew …
Posted to White Phosphorous Lies
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I hesitate to discuss anything involving German society on this forum for fear that JC the CJ might chime in with some more idiotic Lederhosen-Romantik comments on (virtually) non-existent autumn harvest festivals or our lack of ability to queue up at bus stops to prove how familiar he is with the country... ... but the article mentioned Walmart in Germany and I felt I had to comment. Walmart has had a very tough stand here - and there are justified hopes they will close down and go away. There have been many articles in the business press about how German consumers …
Posted to Symbol of the System
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I myself was on a works committee for four years. As far as trade unions are concerned, there is no such thing as a "closed shop" here. Membership is entirely voluntary. And it is a guaranteed right of every worker. I have been a member of a union all my working life (actually, of many different unions due to career changes) - in the days of East Germany, membership was obligatory, but unions had a different function in the state socialist system. Under capitalism, I consider membership simply a moral obligation, since it is the unions who do the bargaining and …
Posted to Symbol of the System
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A short aside to whattheheck: I was not 15 in 1979 but 25 - so I remember all your examples except for Berlin 1949 and Hungary 1956, albeit from the perspective of "the other side"... Far be it from me to deny that the Soviets were a threat - it is a threat I lived under. But let's not forget things like the American-British coup overthrowing a democratically elected Persian leader to install the Shah in 1954 (?), the Bay of Pigs, the attack on and occupation of South Vietnam, US support for the murderous Somoza regime in Nicaragua, the overthrow …
Posted to Symbol of the System
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Seemingly incongruous decisions? Sorry, whattheheck, but the long-term pattern is totally clear in the case of the USA - from the Spanish-American war and the initial occupation of the Phillipines onward: making the world safe for American business. In another word: empire. This is not what this topic is about, but I will submit the following overall judgement and then remain silent on this: Of the two "partners" (enemies) in the Cold War, the US was the more consistent and aggressive (particularly wherever "democracy raised its ugly head" (in places like pre-Shah Iran and pre-Pinochet Chile, for example) to quote Chomsky.) …
Posted to Symbol of the System
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Whattheheck: Sorry to have kept you waiting for a response. I’ve been travelling in several countries in central Europe for two weeks… I simply don’t have the time or the inclination to go back to square one with you concerning the topic “Empire”. There are many books you could read to inform yourself, but I will recommend just one, an American source anyone with an open mind should be able to comprehend: Noam Chomsky’s “Hegemony or Survival”. I could recommend radical treatises, but I think it makes more sense to point you to a totally objective, factual account of the history …
Posted to Symbol of the System
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Thank you, Doug Ireland, for pointing us to what looks to be a good book about a great man!
Posted to Vidal--Never More Vital
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When it comes to the "war on drugs", America once again shows its truly ugly and intolerant face. Both at home and abroad. And above all it's hypocritical face. Not just as can be seen by the hundreds of thousands of its citizens living lives of indescribable deprivation in American high-security rape-torture institutions, known euphemistically as "prisons", for exercising their freedom to intoxicate themselves as they see fit (here we see again the deep-seated puritanical strain in America to try to make "sins" illegal). This denial of individual liberty is not just in the criminal INjustice system. I have an unemployed …
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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You dolt, Jay. Drug tests show positive for marijuana even when you are not stoned. You make fun here, but are you seriously defending this practice? An employer has the right to dictate what you do in your private time?
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Are you being purposely obtuse? Of course a pilot can't fly stoned or drunk. But if he smoked pot last week and takes a drug test today, he'll still show positive for marijuana. Should he then not be allowed to fly? Besides, we're talking more generally here. Because I like to smoke marijuana in my free time I shouldn't be able to get a job? What kind of country is that - and how does that reflect on the country's attitude about personal liberties?
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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We're getting way off the main guts of the article here with drug tests - though I do consider them an affront to personal liberty beyond description outside of the context of security issues involving intoxication at the time of performing one's duties. What do you have to say about America's "war on drugs" in general, Jay?
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Speeding on the motorway is also illegal. If the pilot speeds in his free time should he also not be allowed to fly? And does this involve merely pilots? What about carpenters? Carpenters who partake in illegal activities such as speeding should also not be allowed to work?
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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What kind of a circular answer is that, Jay? What does "just say no" mean??? No to what? Libertarian? I don't give a shit about labels. I'm trying to understand the logic of your argument. But I've decided to give up on you. There's no logic there.
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Too lax? The author's friend's life destroyed by possession of cocaine? And you find that sentencing too lax? What kind of inhuman monster are you, Jay?
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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I give up on Jay the idiot. It's getting on to 22.00 in central Europe - time for a nice joint (well, these days we don't need joints any more - thanks to the wonderful Dutch grass-growers who've cultivated weed over the years that just requires one hit) and maybe some extra-marital sex to top off the decadent Euro-evening. No, to hell with that - extra-marital is a bore if you don't have to pay for it! I'm off to the legal brothel right around the corner (yes, there is one - no joke). Goodnight, virtuous America!
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Before taking that second hit of Dutch high octane, I want to thank you, druid, for your wonderfully logical explanation. I'm going to give it a good think - maybe I'll start to understand things about your country that are foreign to me... Jay: "take responsibility for their own behaviour", eh? They're putting themselves in jail, right? Not the state you so loathe... And your Did the druggie know what he was doing, breaking the law? Was it legal when he did it and nobody told him that it is now illegal? is absolutely priceless. Mindless obedience to "the law" is …
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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When I first joined this list recently, I was a bit taken aback by the radical nature of some of Rabbit's and others' references to Jay Cline. Now I, the "intolerant raver" understand. The most I could accuse you of now is understatement. A third hit and I'm off the planet... Later...
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Liz, yes, Gary Webb was his name. Thanks for the link! Rabbit, I've always wanted to come and visit your enlightened and civilised nation - I look forward to putting the Aussie weed-growing art to the test - but I think I'll put it off until you vote Bush's lapdog out of office! Ha ha... Is it too much to hope he'll be dragged off in leg irons to the Hague along with his brother lapdogs Berlusconi and Blair - and the top dog and all his white house and corporate cronies for trial for war crimes?! Nothing like people - …
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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So where's the scorp on this one? Isn't world communism to blame for drugs? Or does he perhaps feel uncomfortable about the fact that the Red Czar had more or less the same attitude about recreational drug use as Washington's Drug Czar?
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Contrary to what JC says, according to many studies, your average US state penitentiary is probably worse than jails in the Soviet gulag or in Saddam's Iraq. It is something you do not get out of unscathed. Of course it is a matter of degree. I assume conditions are more humane in Massachussetts, for example, than in Texas. It seems that the US system places the main focus on punishment and not on rehabilitation. Compare the rate-of-return (or whatever the correct word is) with, say, the humane and progressive, dual-sex jails in Finland. No, European countries don't have legal distribution systems …
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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druid, I, too, am new to this forum and am contemplating doing the same. But on the other hand, that is exactly JC's purpose - and I am somehow loath to grant him his wish so will persevere - at least for awhile. Fuck him. Let's just just try not respond to his noise. True, easier said than done - I've fallen into the trap of gracing him with a response on several occasions. Let's just let Rabbit take care of him.
Posted to Liberalisms Brain on Drugs
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Wolf, perhaps you should take off your Puritan Yankee blinders and have a look around the world before you go off making idiotic statements about sexual freedom (not to mention things like legal prostitution) being a conservative or libertarian phenomenon. Ever heard of Northern Europe???
Posted to Babes in BushWorld
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I have no idea if you yourself are a puritan, wolf, but your country as a whole certainly is - not compared to Afghanistan, but compared to most of Western, Central and Northern Europe. It would be taking us way off topic to go into all the prudery on the one hand and adolescent-type sexual hangups on the other so typical of American society. A woman's nipple on the screen at half-time during a sport telecast caused a national scandal. European reaction ranged from total disbelief to totally convulsive laughter. (While, as Rabbit mentioned, US slaughter of hundreds of thousands of …
Posted to Babes in BushWorld
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Okay, Neruda and David in Canada - I'll grant you that gladly. I was not talking about individuals but about general tendencies in the society. Things like abstinence education in schools, censorship of sex in non-cable television, etc. Well, actually, other things as well - but that will suffice as examples. (What the hell is wrong with vibrators, David??!) Let's get back to the message of the article.
Posted to Babes in BushWorld
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This is one of the naivest posts I've read on this site. You'll start seriously addressing the tyrants and dictators when it's not in the interests of American business to have those tyrants and dictators in power. Since when has the US been worried about human rights abuses and repressive regimes? Ever been to Central America, Jay? Indonesia? Most Arab countries? The Central Asian formerly Soviet republics? Most of those tyrants are there with America's (at least tacit) support. As far as China is concerned - you've got to be kidding, Jay. China is close to owning the US debt. Nobody …
Posted to See No Evil
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Free markets, eh? I suppose it's a question of what you mean by "free". What American corporations want in third world countries is cheap labour and access to natural resources to rip off. The fairy story about the "serious threat" posed by the Soviet Union has been throughly debunked. Did you watch the Power of Nightmares, that 3-part BBC docu someone recommended last week? It was all just a neo-con lie. Don't know what to make of your last question. As the author points out, American businesses don't give a shit about human rights in China (just like they don't give …
Posted to See No Evil
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Breaking my new policy not to react to the provocations and idiocies spouted by JC: nationalism in China is strong, and the Chinese, after thousands of years, still see themselves at the Center of the world. They don’t like the challenges that a strong global America presents Nowhere in the world is nationalism stronger than in the USA - though they themselves seem to prefer the euphemism "patriotism". And though the country is just over 200 years old, they *already* see themselves as the centre of the world - hell, of the universe! ("already" is misleading. I can remember my first …
Posted to See No Evil
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How is it that JC thinks he knows about the extent of my familiarity with the Empire and its citizens? The wall's been down for 16 years now (well not quite - next week to be precise), and I just so happen to have spent a few years in Canada and the US. Unlike him, I'm not in the habit of spouting off about places I've never been to. Sorry to David in Canada for mentioning the two countries in the same breath, since despite all the (largely cultural) similarities they are two quite different nations - much to the advantage …
Posted to See No Evil
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Or, for example, Eyeresist, the displacement and near extermination of the indigenous population for fear of making white Americans feel badly... It is not surprising that this article has led to much misunderstanding. After all, we are not all Lacanian psychologist-philosophers who can view the hurricane as the social metaphor (as Major Major points out) as the author intended. He didn't lay out any guidelines about what we should or should not report on - or declare what the common people are not fit to know. Reread the last two paragraphs. That's ultimately what the article is really about - and …
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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Geebee, your lines drip with racist undertones - the blacks doing what they always do, huh?: complain about having to wait too long for their free breakfasts, live off government handouts, etc. You're spreading bad, bad vibes, here gee... You are (indirectly, though not *that* indirectly) denying that blacks have always been given - and still are being given - a raw deal in American society. Your innuendoes are far worse than using the word "nigger". And your claim that "redneck" is racist language - on a par with "nigger" - is laughable. The latter refers to an entire race of …
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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geebee, your response to my last post is some of the greatest nonsense I have read in a long time. Unfortunately, it is now 1.00 in the morning in Europe and my Lebensabschnittsgefährtin (sorry, don't know how to say that in English...) is waiting for me to join her in bed. I'll respond to your nonsensical defence of what "redneck" means tomorrow...
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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Sorry, if this is getting posted a second time - but the first time it didn't seem to go through... Okay, geebee, your stereotypically reactionary statements were not about blacks specifically, but about *all* people at the bottom of the socio-economic class ladder. But the obnoxious sub-text - that it is their fault that they are there - is still there. It has nothing to do with the nature of turbo-capitalism, right? I'll not comment further on that. So my English is deficient because I don't know how to translate one word? Well, I'll give it a try: Lebensabschnittsgefährtin = (female) …
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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Okay, let me reword that. A black in America has every right to be prejudiced against whites. It's probably not going to do him much good in life, but it is understandable and not to be set on a par with racism on the part of the oppressor. Obviouisly, whites are not the only racists in the world - even if you take my original standpoint that only the oppressor can be a racist - I've heard a lot, for example, about Japanese racism. But still, you're the one who had better wake up, Siskiyouz. White males - and their system …
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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I'm sorry, Jay, but I'm going to stand by my statement. It is laughable for whites to complain about racism on the part of blacks.
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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geebee, you repeatedly refuse to address any of my points about the word "redneck" - and then accuse me of ignorance. And yet many American sources seem to agree with me that the main meaning of "redneck" today is rabbit's Nr. 2 meaning, *not* "all rural white southerners". Here is my argument one last time: Of course “redneck” is derogatory. So what? That’s not what anyone was talking about. Derogatory is not the same thing as racist. I think for a term to really be called racist it has to be all-inclusive. Once again, the term “nigger” slanders all black people …
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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Quote from geebee: Excusing blacks for things that whites would not be excused for. Holding blacks to lower standards. This is racism at its most profound. Affirmative action as a form of racism. Even the most "profound" form of racism. This is a very old argument, geebee. And it's pretty sickening. The alternative is, of course, doing absolutely nothing to try to correct all the wrongs done to blacks - over the centuries and right up to the present day. Blacks have the same chances on average as whites in modern-day America, right? That's why most of the prison population is …
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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Geebee, That's not what I meant to say. I expressed myself very poorly. Worse than poorly. I totally misled the reader. What I meant was: the fact that the percentage of inner-city poor (actually not just in N.O. but in all big US cities) is well over 13 per cent black. How can such a high percentage of inner-city poor be black if blacks and whites have equal chances in general?
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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Sorry, that was Jay, not Geebee. Back off list on this topic...
Posted to The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape
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A good article - at least from the "liberal democratic" perspective - but with a very puzzling ending. A few questions come instantly to mind: - From which side of the Atlantic is the main danger to the community of liberal democracies now coming? - What country is ruled by a religious fanatic (hint: the religion in question is not Islam) financed by big business believes Providence has chosen him to save (rule?) the world? And let's not forget that his main rhetorical weapon is to stoke the flames of fear in the populace. - In what country does a significant …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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What does your post have to do with liberal trans-Atlantic democracies, Jay? Yes, the man you refer to is financed by oil-rich Arabs, some of them personal friends of the Bush family in states ruled by autocratic puppet-regimes of the US. And who was the godfather of his movement? (Hint: his first name was Ronald and he was not pleased with Soviet involvement in Afghanistan.) How many in these countries have their sights set on the 100 virgins - and how many Americans have their sights set on the "prime seats" after Armageddon? An argument could easily be made for the …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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As the first poster for this article, I wanted to apologise for my absence after my second post. I was perplexed by Jay Cline's oblique and off-the-topic comments and then things just went all over the place with topics reflecting America's hang-ups about religion, personal lifestyles, sexual persuasion, teenage sex, etc. It is fascinating to see how the first country to establish the separation of church and state as law (a VERY respectable achievement indeed!) has the biggest problem with the issue today - and is doing more to undermine the principle than any other "liberal democracy". Legal separation of church …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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My original post referred to the final three paragraphs of Stern's article. Without really coming right out and saying it, he seems to be implying that German democracy is in danger and that close cooperation with America could be the guarantee that we won't slip back into the ways of our fascist past... The purpose of my first post was to say: this would be an unbelievable insinuation. Not only does Stern offer no basis whatsoever for this potential accusation (which, again, he does not express directly): if there is one country on earth at the moment that should NOT be …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Greetings, Rabbit. Yes, I detected a soulmate in you right from the start. I happened upon this website via a link in a Counterpunch article, the only American source I read regularly. I think I'll hang around for a while. It's important to keep in touch with some level-headed citizens of the Empire in these globalised days - at least until we've given "globalisation" a new and human face. And then Americans will be - whether they like it or not - no more important than you and me and the rest of us... The west-east divide in reunified Germany is …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Who IS this guy Scorp??? The bullshit coming off his keyboard is older than my long-dead grandmother's socks. It can't possibly be worth our while to respond to any of this here, can it? American ignorance of history is well-known, but 8 to 9 million non-military deaths in WWII??? What planet is he living on? Socialism as the world's greatest evil? We should have let the Morgans and the Rockefellers take over the world completely (as opposed to more-or-less completely, as things have turned out)? Is Scorp not aware of the proud socialist tradition of struggle in his own country? Has …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Name-calling, name-calling, Chopper. Go for the messenger, not the message, right? Nobody here is making anything out of the fact that so many neo-cons are self-confessed former Trotskyites... You are referring to Alexander Cockburn, of course. I've been reading Counterpunch for a few years now and have never read anything smacking of Stalinism. I really have no interest in defending the publicaton, though. I read it just because one has only limited time for American sources, and it's semi-mainstream in the non-MSM area, i.e. recognised as a "standard" of sorts... The only reason I mentioned it was so others could judge …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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The article is fine, Rabbit, but it is, of course, much too narrow in its scope. These wars are first and foremost about imperial power, subjugation, resources. Europe -and later America - have been waging colonial wars for a long, long time. Religious fanaticism (and the accompanying good vs. evil mind-set) is a new element, but focusing too much on it distracts us from the essence. In Chomsky's excellent (clear, objective, very readable - to be recommended!) "Hegemony or Survival" (from 2003), which includes an overview of the history of US foreign policy, he hardly even mentions the religious right - …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Chopper, you need to go back to school and learn to read. Rabbit did not say "Bush = Hitler". He said: "Rabbit points out only that Bush has become more hated and known for evil than hitler, in his own lifetime." Rabbit was not comparing the deeds of Hitler with the deeds of Bush. He was referring to how people view him in comparison with how they view/viewed Hitler. Most of you Americans have no idea of how feared and hated Bush (and not just Bush) is around the world. I really don't know how one could go about actually measuring …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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I agree that it is false (and yes, offensive) to equate neo-conservatism with Nazism. One must differentiate between Nazism, a specific historical form of fascism, and fascism in general. One of the most salient features of fascism as it is generally defined in most of the political theory I am familiar with is big government and big business being in bed with each other. (Most importantly, perhaps, some specific subsets of big business like big media, big war industry, etc.). Does America go marching off to war primarily in the interests of Lockheed Martin, Exxon, Halliburton, etc., etc.? I believe that …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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EmitFlesti wrote: "Sozi: To define fascism as "big government and big business being in bed with each other" is as wrong as those above who stated that Nazism and "Neo-Conservatism" are equivalent " This kind of misrepresentation can really piss one off. You omitted a few *very* important words. I wrote: "*One of the most salient features* of fascism as it is generally defined in most of the political theory I am familiar with is ..." Of course you are correct that the "absolute glorification of the state" is another salient feature. I'm pretty much in agreement with the "14 points" …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Speaking of big business and fascism, I wonder how many Americans know that GWB's granddaddy, Prescott Bush, was a major bankroller of Thyssen, one of Nazi Germany's most important industrialists. Or that the German Army would never have got one kilometre onto enemy territory without General Motors, owner of Opel, producer of the "Opel Blitz", the "workhorse of the Wehrmacht". Or of DuPont's involvement with IG Farben, maker of Zyklon B, the gas that killed millions...
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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EmitFlesti: Yes, the term "anti-Semite" in today's political discourse means "anti-Jewish" - despite the fact that the term "Semitic" has another, more encompassing meaning. In this other sense, it is totally absurd to call an Arab, who is ethnically speaking a Semite, anti-Semitic. But you are doing exactly the same thing you are accusing Rabbit of, when you insist on the purely geographical sense of the word "Palestinian". Using your definition, Ariel Sharon is a Palestinian. You're pretty much alone in the world with this terminology...
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Speaking of what the dumbed-down population of the United States is not aware of: I wonder how many Americans know that their country stands convicted of war crimes by the International Court of Justice (aka World Court) for the mining of Nicaraguan harbours in the 1980s ... It's "down the memory hole", as Chomsky puts it. Speaking of whom - it is simply beneath the dignity of a thinking individual to respond to the idiotic rantings of someone who would slander this beacon of moral and intellectual integrity. Just as it is beneath the dignity of a thinking individual to respond …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Or to put it another way: who cares what man sits in the White House if that man must carry out the orders of the military-industrial-corporation-complex: invade Iraq to maximise our profits! Thanks for opening my eyes: George W is a socialist - a flag-waver who knows how to use the props recognisable to the people! How stupid of me to accuse the silly scorp of being a state department shill. It's you, JasonPappas!
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Name-calling, name-calling, EmitFlesti. I happen to be a linguist and a member of "the academy". Chomsky has defined the discipline for over fifty years. It is true, however, that many of his former students have not kept pace with his constant furthering of the discipline. They have chosen to protect their territory. Understandable - typical for former revolutionaries... The academy is the Establishment - as it always has been. I would be very worried if they accepted him. It would be a sign of moral rot on his part... Chomsky a moral fraud?! That is slander of the grandest order. Prove …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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EmitFlesti: Treating big business as an element of fascism is silly? What planet are you living on? Picture-book fascists of modern times such as Somoza or Pinochet had nothing to do with big business? I'm not going to enter into a debate with you on the compatability of anarchism and socialism. A tightly-knit and well-organised society is the only way to realise true freedom without hierarchy. I am as sceptical of "state socialism" as you are - albeit for different reasons. You are not an anarchist but a libertarian of the Ayn Rand sort, it seems. We don't need to reinvent …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Coming as it does from someone, who to all appearances, dwells in the lugubrious nadir of intellectual dishonesty and vapidity, your criticism of Chomsky is high praise indeed. Vacuous name-calling without substance... Oh how this reminds me of the "good old days" of East Germany... I hereby stop responding to you people. I'm sure that is your purpose - to silence the few who question your regime. It's not enough for you to have total control of the MSM - you have to drive us sane people on the fringe crazy. Keep up the good fight, Rabbit, luminous beauty, major major …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Reynardine: My mention of Prescott Bush had nothing to do with the "sins of the father and grandfather". It was offered merely as an example of the (well-known outside of dumbed-down America) fact that capital knows no morals (or national boundaries) but only profit. Why do you throw the Kennedys at me? Of course they are no different, just as Republicans and Democrats are no different from each other. That's the point! By the way, P. Bush was not doing business with the Nazis merely *before* WW2 but also during (even after America's entry - how stupid of me to mention …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Greetings Liz and welcome to this hmm... how should it be characterised? group! (I, too, am new here...) Many thanks for your link to wsws. Sometimes it is indeed worthwhile to reflect on some of the (minor) differences within the ruling elite. Yes, there is most definitely a qualitative difference between much of what Kennedy said in his speeches and the political pig grunts of W. Nice to have another non-dumbed-down Ami here (your language gives you away. My guess: UK, IRE, NZ, OZ, SA...) (no offence intended as regards Luminous Beauty, Major Major, and a select group of others!) …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Hallo Liz Ja, ich bin ein alter Ossi, wie er leibt und lebt - ursprünglich aus der Berliner Gegend, aber ich lebe nun seit Jahren in Vorpommern an der schönen Ostseeküste. Und du? Wo kommst du her? Das Vereinigte Königreich Großbritannien und Nordirland ist groooooooooooß...
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Yes, Rabbit, definitely! Take off the kid gloves and show us your true self. We don't want any ghosts here. Be the Vollblutkarnickelbock you really are!
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Rabbit, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on the Dyer article - I was off in Poland for a week. He was pretty right on with most points. Most of us Germans are not willing to scrap our social system (one could call it "Capitalism Lite") on the bonfire of globalisation. The article is a month old now, so it's hard to get motivated to go into detail. As a general statement, something many non-Germans don't understand is that even our Christian Democrats are not to be compared to Anglo-Saxon-style conservatives. Angela Merkel does not believe in free-market …
Posted to A Fundamental History Lesson
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Many thanks to "David in Canada" for alerting us from another thread to this one, as it is about to close! Also many thanks to Dave Lindorff (whom I "know" only from his excellent contributions to Counterpunch)! If only you were the face of mainstream American journalism... No time to read through all the posts on this topic, but I happened to notice the word "napalm". Just for the record, I wanted to note that its use goes way back - far further than most people are aware of. The first use of napalm I know of was in Dresden in …
Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War