alanjjohnstone

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  • in reply to: Queen is dead #232860
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    On the upcoming coronation of Charlie the third

    King Capital’s Coronation

    (thanks to ALB reminding us of it)

    ” Behind the person of the King the capitalists can hide the fact that it is they in reality who rule. By parading their kings before the workers at every possible opportunity, and with every circumstance of pomp and display that their ingenuity can invent, by investing them with divine right and something of divinity itself, the capitalists awaken and stimulate and nurture that spirit of reverence which is so deadly an enemy to the growth of revolutionary ideas, and so detract attention from themselves.”

    in reply to: Capitalism’s animal holocaust continues. #232859
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    More than 1.1 million sea turtles have been illegally killed in the past 30 years, according to new data.

    Turtle hunting and trafficking is part of a global illegal wildlife market worth as much as $23bn (£20bn) a year.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/09/more-than-11m-sea-turtles-illegally-killed-over-past-30-years-study-finds

    in reply to: Why our approach fails to appeal. #232801
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    You have mentioned your doubts about the term impossiblist before, SS, and maybe you a right.

    But I think the origin was that in France the reformists called themselves the possiblists and the opposition took up the name impossiblist to distinguish that they were not going to compromise or make concessions.

    Perhaps the term has had its day like others we have discarded. Communism is rarely used. The dictatorship of the proletariat never.

    But you bring up an important point. Our use of language.

    You and I plus others thought our aim could be better expressed in the statement “Where we stand” from 1973.

    https://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2016/08/where-we-stand.html

    And former comrade Paul Freeze thought we should drop particular words

    https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2017/10/world-of-free-access.html

    And even our main video kids stuff refrains from jargon and the word socialism

    Were they successful? I honestly can’t say.

    in reply to: Queen is dead #232788
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    I wonder if his tampon conversation will be remembered on his coronation

    The king who would be a tampax

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-camillagate-tapes-exposed-secret-10958350

    in reply to: Russian Tensions #232782
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    “…Failing to do so would mean nukes less than seven minutes away from Moscow. No time to react should the crazies in Washington do something really stupid…”

    So JFK was right in threatening what would have escalated to a nuclear war when the USSR placed missiles in Cuba?

    But before we enter into a long acrimonious exchange, this forum generally does take the view that Russia was provoked into military action by NATO expansionism.

    I have already said that the possibility of a peaceful settlement was sabotaged by Western interests. We can see the war as a proxy war. And you were right about the Minsky talks being thwarted by again Western interests. Turkish offers of mediating new peace negotiations (as they to permit grain exports) are being deliberately ignored.

    But it is a war and it was an invasion. Orwellian double-speak that it is “a special military operation” is hogwash just the same as the war against Serbia was “humanitarian” and the war against Iraq was about WMDs,

    in reply to: Free ports #232769
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    How different was “Semi-Autonomous Region” (SAR) from freeports?

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62830548

    in reply to: Russian Tensions #232765
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Russia is NOT an imperialist power argues the Weekly Worker but will become one if it wins its war against Ukraine.

    https://www.weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1409/imperialist-russia/

    in reply to: Queen is dead #232764
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Hope all are prepared for many days of solemn mourning and eulogies on how saintly she was.

    But at least the good news is that we will hopefully get a public holiday for the state funeral and then another for the Coronation.

    in reply to: Chinese Tensions #232742
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    The trade war keeps going

    US tech companies that receive federal funding will be barred from building “advanced technology” facilities in China for 10 years.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/62803224

    in reply to: Russian Tensions #232737
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Who killed the chance of peace?

    Peace Talks Essential as War Rages on in Ukraine 

    “…the U.K. and U.S. governments played decisive roles in torpedoing those early prospects for peace…”

    in reply to: The Dark Future of the USA #232736
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Chris Hedges, an apocalyptic fire and brimstone preacher and political commentator describes American non-democracy.

    Chris Hedges: Stop Pretending US Is a Functioning Democracy

    “…Politics is spectacle, a tawdry carnival act where the constant jockeying for power by the ruling class dominates the news cycles, as if politics were a race to the Super Bowl. The real business of ruling is hidden, carried out by corporate lobbyists who write the legislation, banks that loot the Treasury, the war industry and an oligarchy that determines who gets elected and who does not. It is impossible to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs, the fossil fuel industry or Raytheon, no matter which party is in office…”

    in reply to: Russian Tensions #232735
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    And do you think that the Russians have unlimited logistics?

    The war has depleted the arms supplies of both countries but the West with a policy of prolonging the war and turning it into one of attrition has been replenishing Ukraine’s.

    I will happily concede that perhaps I have indeed been caught in the snare of the propaganda war. As they say, truth is always the first casualty of war. There is little transparency from either side.

    in reply to: Cost of living crisis #232732
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon has announced a rent freeze for public and private rented properties as part of efforts to help people struggling with rising bills and banning evictions during winter and freezing rents until spring.

    There are also plans to freeze rail fares and to boost the Scottish Child Payment to £25 per week from November.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-62807578

    The Scottish Association of Landlords accused the the government of “attacking landlords for political reasons”.

    in reply to: Russian Tensions #232731
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    I’m saying it is not beyond belief that the Russians fed the story and the US intelligence was duped into believing it.

    Stories of North Korea’s possible involvement have been previously aired on Russian state tv and the Russian ambassador to North Korea.

    in reply to: Why our approach fails to appeal. #232730
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Quietly but diligently working away are a few comrades on Quora, let us not overlook.

Viewing 15 posts - 1,126 through 1,140 (of 12,551 total)