Donald Trump, the road that might not lead to the White House!

[J Ed]

Also the Podesta clan.

 

[seventh bullet]

It's very perplexing but when strange folk set about wiping out a countries minorities and intelligentsia while aspiring to create a purified communist peasant autarky (the quick way) people just tend to notice the mass graves not what they put in their pamphlets (after 77 when they killed off masses of dissident communists and attacked neighbouring countries) or that some of the kids beating people to death are specky bastards.
From Yale's Cambodian Genocide Program.

Reeducation of "base people" via Info Wars and alt-right social media is certainly tidier.

It's not that perplexing if you're willing to put the hard work in.

It'd be re-education of potentially reformable new people, no? The base is sound. Off the top of my head, the anthropologist May Ebihara described the lives of peasants she had known and who would later be deemed old/base people during the war and suffered in the DK years, and from their anecdotes she got the impression that cadre attempts to 'educate the masses' for the purpose of the national front were publicly given due shows of deference out of fear and traditional observance of respect for the 'educated' (or those who can read and write) but privately their lectures were not only poorly understood but viewed as irrelevant to their lives. It can sometimes be shocking to the educated and privileged that poor people aren't actually uncritical thickoes.

The general designations of old (base) and new people (the former being those who joined the revolution early on and the latter only recently) is from Vietnamese Communist practice in organising rural areas, although the official designations of full-rights, candidate and depositee statuses, the first two from Vietnamese M-L party organising, were applied to the whole of society in Cambodia's case.

The CPK leaders themselves, many coming from some of the most privileged backgrounds and the entitlement that entails, had to go through the humbling indignities of being placed into menial positions while cutting their teeth in the Vietnamese-dominated border camps of the early 1960s, receiving condescending instruction from Vietnamese cadres who in other contexts would be deemed their social inferiors. This again comes from the old Vietnamese practice of 'proletarianisation,' or staffing a hidden Communist party, those deemed 'intellectuals' from higher social backgrounds having to to go through a longer period of indoctrination and prove their worth. In 1965, when the new Cambodian party leadership met the Vietnam Worker's Party central committee for the first time, and their request for assistance in making People's War in Cambodia was coolly rebuffed by General Secretary Le Duan, a former clerk, it may have grated somewhat to be told no by someone of lower social background and formal education.

Anyway, from the polite suggestion that transposing your own idea of 'intellectual' onto their ideology and using one of the cruder claims about Communist rule to illustrate your take on the political situation in a very different society doesn't really help in comprehending what went on, there can be a better response than the insinuation there's a defence here of people spending three and a half years being beaten and starved for reasons never made clear to them.

And yes, like I said yesterday, this is off-topic.

 

[J Ed]

A real illustration of the limits of the Affordable Care Act, not that it isn't better than what came before and what will come next, presented as an anecdote about the relationship between Obama and Biden which demonstrates how fantastic their relationship is.

Vice President Biden: Obama offered financial help when his son Beau Biden was ill with brain cancer

Vice President Biden said in an interview broadcast Monday night that President Obama offered him financial help when his son Beau Biden was suffering from cancer.

In the interview with CNN, the vice president said he had told Obama over one of their regular private lunches that if his son Beau were forced to step down his position as Delaware's attorney general and lose his income because of the brain cancer that ultimately killed him, the vice president and his wife Jill would have to sell their home to pay for Beau's medical expenses.

He said Obama told him not to do that.

"He said ‘I’ll give you the money. Whatever you need, I’ll give you the money. Don’t, Joe. Promise me. Promise me,'” Biden told CNN.

All great and nice and kind... but what sort of healthcare provision means that even the Vice President of a country can be potentially bankrupted by treatment for their son's cancer? For that matter, what sort of article reporting this story fails to note just how incredible that is?

 

[CrabbedOne]

Oh dear, Trump seems to have annoyed Rupert.

 

[J Ed]

Oh dear, Trump seems to have annoyed Rupert.

Perhaps he thinks he is on to a winner by provoking Dem nativist hysteria over and over with Russia.

 

[CrabbedOne]

Pay walled unfortunately.

This must be a interesting moment for Rightwing Zionists. On the one hand Team Trump looks to be very, very pro-Likud and riddled with raving Islamophobes. On the other there are for signs of an enthusiastic antisemitic revival on the American Right. Lügenpresse being chanted at Trump rallies and often Jewish US liberal US journos being trolled in a very racist way has resonance. So short term advantage to expand the settlements and a encouraging confirmation of your worldview. The Goyim can't be trusted and therefore the only safe place for Jews is a militarised Jewish state safe behind its high walls. You can nod wisely and bore nervous American relatives about how relatively safe Jews felt in Austria in the 20s before a nativist revolution collapsed the protective laws of the old state. Do you still think you can control them?

Bit rich when Bibi's mashugana coalition make Trump's alt-right dweebs and billionaire vulture capitalists on the make it look rather tame ideologically. Israel having slid far to the right has been a rather comfortable place under them, at least for the better sort of chap. Crony capitalism and soaring inequality with a large side order of populist racial paranoia. Trump's dream of America made great again may well bear a resemblance.

 

[J Ed]

Interesting too the way in which Trump is given cover by the Jewish right in the US vs the way in which Keith Ellison (who doesn't even support BDS IIRC) is attacked as an anti-Semite.

 

[CrabbedOne]

Well that's nicely twinned with turning NATO into a defanged protection racket. Follow that up with a trade war on the hapless fragments that's sort of a reverse Marshal Plan.

 

[J Ed]

Well that's nicely twinned with turning NATO into a defanged protection racket. Follow that up with a trade war on the hapless fragments that's sort of a reverse Marshal Plan.

With the Italian and French elections it might not need much pushing for the EU to collapse.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

<snip>

Israel having slid far to the right has been a rather comfortable place under them, at least for the better sort of chap. Crony capitalism and soaring inequality with a large side order of populist racial paranoia. Trump's dream of America made great again may well bear a resemblance.

The resemblance goes a long way past just the US.

It's what nativists across the EU seem to be gravitating towards as well.

 

[Pickman's model]

With the Italian and French elections it might not need much pushing for the EU to collapse.

It is one way to ease the difficulty of brexit negotiations

 

[mikey mikey]

Could a reason be because anything left of "moderate" in the EU is crushed?

 

[Pickman's model]

DP

It's only a dp if you post something *twice*

 

[CrabbedOne]

On True Economics 12/1/17: Betrayal Aversion, Populism and Donald Trump Election

...
Which means the election of Mr Trump fits (from pre-conditions through to outcome) the pattern of betrayal aversion phenomena: fleeing the chance of being betrayed by the agent they trust, American voters opted for a populist, less competent (in traditional Washington’s sense) choice.

Now, enter two brainiacs from Harvard. Rafael Di Tella and Julio Rotemberg were quick on their feet recognising the above emergence of betrayal avoidance or aversion in voting decisions. In their December 2016 NBER paper, linked below, the authors argue that voters preference for populism is the form of “rejection of “disloyal” leaders.” To do this, the authors add an “assumption that people are worse off when they experience low income as a result of leader betrayal”, than when such a loss of income “is the result of bad luck”. In other words, they explicitly assume betrayal aversion in their model of a simple voter choice. The end result is that their model “yields a [voter] preference for incompetent leaders. These deliver worse material outcomes in general, but they reduce the feelings of betrayal during bad times.”
...

Plump for the chump when afraid of being dumped.

With Trump's business dealings a pleasure in petty acts of betrayal often seems to feature. Imagine if Rust Belt voters pissed off by the Clinton's and later a hope monger's failure to deliver prosperity went Trump only to find out he's a Russki asset and shameless corporate looter.

 

[Lorca]

why would trump want to encourage the break up of the EU? surely it would be easier for his administration to deal with one supranational body on trade, foreign affairs etc, than 20 odd separate nations?

 

[not-bono-ever]

I dont think he thinks that strategivally TBH. The threat to pull out of TPP could hand over more regional power to the PRC, which sorta goes againt whatever toss he comes up with WRT China . I would not take anything he ejaculates too seriously

 

[not-bono-ever]

Could a reason be because anything left of "moderate" in the EU is crushed?

who is crushing what ?

 

[CrabbedOne]

...
Walter Sobchak: That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

The Dude: Fuckin' A.

Donny: And this guy peed on it.

Walter Sobchak: Donny, please.
...
The Stranger: Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.
...
The Big Lebowski: I didn't blame anyone for the loss of my legs. Some Chinaman took them from me in Korea.
...
Walter Sobchak: Look at our current situation with that camel fucker over in Iraq. Pacifism is not something to hide behind.
...
Walter Sobchak: Whereas what we have here? A bunch of fig-eaters wearing towels on their heads, trying to find reverse in a Soviet tank. This is not a worthy adversary.
...
Donny: Are these the Nazis, Walter?

Walter Sobchak: No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There's nothing to be afraid of.
...
The Dude: At least I'm housebroken.
...
Maude Lebowski: My father's weakness is vanity, hence the slut.
...
[after biting the German's ear off]

Walter Sobchak: Anti-semite!
...
[after recovering his car from the Auto circus]

The Dude: Oh, Jesus, what's that smell, man?

Auto Circus Cop: Yes, probably a vagrant slept in the car. Or maybe just used it as a toilet and moved on.
...
Walter Sobchak: Yeah, the beauty of this is its simplicity. If it gets complex, everything can go wrong.

Spooky.

 

[hot air baboon]

But is 'ProporNot' not proper prop?

Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes a McCarthyite Blacklist From a New, Hidden, and Very Shady Group

...indeed, I hope my sarcasm was loud & clear...

 

[J Ed]

Obama Opens NSA’s Vast Trove of Warrantless Data to Entire Intelligence Community, Just in Time for Trump

WITH ONLY DAYS until Donald Trump takes office, the Obama administration on Thursday announced new rules that will let the NSA share vast amounts of private data gathered without warrant, court orders or congressional authorization with 16 other agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The new rules allow employees doing intelligence work for those agencies to sift through raw data collected under a broad, Reagan-era executive order that gives the NSA virtually unlimited authority to intercept communications abroad. Previously, NSA analysts would filter out information they deemed irrelevant and mask the names of innocent Americans before passing it along.

The change was in the works long before there was any expectation that someone like Trump might become president. The last-minute adoption of the procedures is one of many examples of the Obama administration making new executive powers established by the Bush administration permanent, on the assumption that the executive branch could be trusted to police itself.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

Could a reason be because anything left of "moderate" in the EU is crushed?

I don't trust that chart for a second. Everyone is practically Hitler on it, which is a bit silly.

 

[brogdale]

Oh wow; that critique of the use of volk. Choosing to interpret Streeck's Marktvolk as "rootless cosmopolitans" is rather a low blow. In distinguishing Marktvolk & Staatsvolk, Streeck is IMO seeking to differentiate the two constituencies of neoliberal political elites and the imbalance of power between debtor and creditors.

Unsurprisingly, Streeck has come back at Tooze after that review....

Adam Tooze’s outpouring is material for a future anatomy of the class rhetoric of faux cosmopolitanism as it flourishes among a soul-searching urban-academic middle class in the post-Brexit moment.

Where it gets really dirty, however, is where he blows up my innocent analytical distinction between ‘the people of the state’ and ‘the people of the market’ into an essentialist, racist, implicitly anti-Semitic conceptualisation of politics and political economy. The relevant passages in my book are devoted to explicating two competing pressures on democratic politics in an age of high debt: pressures from the owners of passports commanding a right to vote (Staatsvolk), and from the owners of bonds and movable capital commanding a right to sell (Marktvolk). I say nothing about how the two are constituted, except to mention that voting rights are national and selling rights international (which is so).

Tooze responds back; no love lost there.

 

[butchersapron]

I don't trust that chart for a second. Everyone is practically Hitler on it, which is a bit silly.

And it doesn't say who drew it up and on what basis. Which, i think, is why it was pretty much ignored.

 

[Pickman's model]

Could a reason be because anything left of "moderate" in the EU is crushed?

Any chart which has France as the most left wing and among the least authoritarian EU countries is flawed. You do see that, don't you?

 

[8den]

Help Us Map Trump’s Global Businesses And Associates

 

[gosub]

I don't trust that chart for a second. Everyone is practically Hitler on it, which is a bit silly.

we've had enough threads on Political compass over the years: everyone else is Hitler and you with your Ghandi outlook should join the greens... thats saved you 60 questions.

 

[CrabbedOne]

Any chart which has France as the most left wing and among the least authoritarian EU countries is flawed. You do see that, don't you?

Well France's current government is of the Left if rather unpopular and almost certain to be replaced by a right wing one. It also has a dense social state that's still supported by most folk. But its under a state of emergency which I would think would bump it up the chart.

I'm struggling to see the socially conservative but economically crazily neoliberal RoI as more authoritarian than Austria which just very nearly elected a neofascist leader. Nor would I rank the UK along with Spain as the most right wing countries in Europe even under this lot. Hungary and recently a rather extreme Poland aren't that close to the UK in any real world reality. Nor are these two practically Nazi Germany. And it seems they left out rather lefty Greece for effect or simply having forgotten it.

I do wonder if this was just devised at random by some troubled soul. It's clearly not very well calibrated to the available extremes. It's a bit like screaming "fascists" across the Student Union at all opponents.

 

[Casually Red]

It seems the dodgy dossier was given the nod by No 10 , among others .

Britain dragged into Donald Trump 'dirty dossier' row amid claims Whitehall knew of the file

Unlikely to endear the post Brexit uk administration to the big orange cheese running a major trading partner .

Eta

Also confirms the educated guess I made a few days back about Steele being Litivenkos handler . In other words the guy who told him to go ahead and have dinner with his assassins .

 

[butchersapron]

Has Reed written anything post-election results? I had a brief look around last night and couldn't find anything.

This, in the new Socialist Register seems to be IT right now:

As the intellectual left moved both into the academy and away from an intellectual and epistemic commitment to class struggle, it by and large gave up the goal of radical social transformation and the objective of pursuing political power for the purpose of realizing that goal became less distinct from liberalism. Such a left, as Russell Jacoby notes, ‘ineluctably retreats to smaller ideas, seeking to expand the options within the existing society’. Militant embrace of the discourses of identity politics, most notably antiracism, has helped to sustain an appearance that the left is not in retreat but remains on the cutting edge of transformational politics. That is because of the prominence of a view that construes ‘oppressions’ rooted in race and gender, etc., as both foundational to American society – or the West – and so deeply embedded that most whites/men are in denial about their power. From that perspective the civil rights movement’s legislative victories in the 1960s were superficial and could not address the deep-structural sources of racism and sexism, which are effectively ontological and therefore beyond the reach of normal political or social intervention. Thus the struggle against these sources of inequality is always insurgent because their power never diminishes.

EDIT: might be this piece

 

[Casually Red]

Russians appear to be pointing the finger squarely in the direction of the Brits for this entire imbroglio .

Christopher Steele in hiding over Trump dirty dossier made £1m in two years | Daily Mail Online

This could possibly escalate to a brouhaha between Britain and the US should Trump take the hump .