robbo203
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There is also this quite good Netflix series, Money Explained
“A conversation about money and its many minefields, from credit cards to casinos, scam artists to student loans.”
Here´s a write-up for the first episode:
“GET RICH QUICK
The first episode explains how people keep falling for “Get Rich Quick” schemes, which promise great wealth for a small fee.The presenters go into detail about past scams.
For instance, a 19th Century Scottish adventurer named Gregor MacGregor invented a country in Central America, called Poyais, and sold people land in it.
But unfortunately, the country never existed, and MacGregor fled with the investors’ money.
While this may sound like an extreme example, plenty of people are still falling for similar tricks.
There are a number of different scams currently out there:
Advance fee schemes ask you to pay some money now for a lot more money later, but the reward never materializes.
Pump and dump schemes are initiated by investors, who buy up a large amount of an individual stock. Other people then believe that it is valuable and also start to purchase it, driving up the price. Once it’s high, the initial investors sell, thereby driving the price back down.
A Ponzi scheme uses new investors’ money to pay older investors while claiming to make a profit.
Coaching schemes sell you a course that is supposed to make you more money, but it doesn’t work. The scammers get rich selling the course, not implementing the methods illustrated in it.
The experts in this episode warn that everyone can fall for these tricks, and we should be exceedingly cautious.They state that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” and advise listeners to report fraud because that’s how scammers eventually get caught.”
Then there is this – on the workings of the stock market
I see that the TUC has just overwhelmingly backed a motion supporting the Ukrainian capitalist state in the war with the Russian capitalist state. The organisation misleadingly called “Anti-Capitalist Resistance” has published an article endorsing this position:
It says:
“This article explores the debates around the TUC’s resolution and argues for an independent working-class anti-war movement.”
and that it is
“entirely possible to support the people of Ukraine in their armed resistance, be critical of Zelensky’s neoliberal government and also oppose NATO”.
How much more Orwellian and dishonest can you possibly get? How on earth can you be anti-war and yet support engaging in a war? It is also delusional if it imagines that supporting the “people of Ukraine in their armed resistance” can somehow be separated from supporting NATO´s efforts in supplying the Ukrainian state with military hardware
Of course, it goes without saying that any genuine anti-capitalist resistance would strongly resist the capitalist propaganda that workers have a stake in some fictitious entity called the capitalist nation-state. This lie motivates Russian workers to support Russia´s military imperialism just as it motivates Ukrainian workers to rally to the defense of “their” capitalist state or workers in Donbas to argue, with no less (or more) justification to argue that they have every to resist what they see as brutal Ukrainian aggression ever since 2014.
All these different perspectives are based on the false premise that workers possess a country in some meaningful sense.
“The point of my post was for information purposes only – pure and simple!”
You need to learn how to rephrase your sentences, in that case, since it certainly looked like your usual trolling and uninformed criticism of this organisation which you delight in making
Whats the difference between the autocratic Zelensky regime and the autocratic Putin regime
https://www.cato.org/commentary/ukraines-accelerating-slide-authoritarianism
Once again, Robbo can’t comprehend why anybody would want to resist an invader who wants to subjugate them by surrendering their independence to an imperialist autocrat who will likely kill them if they resist. He can only believe that they fight over “a tacky piece of cloth on a flagpole somewhere” or what ALB calls “rags at the end of a pole”.
Very well said, pgb
______________________________lizzie45
Would that be the “independence” of the wage slave in Ukraine from the imperialist autocratic regime of Putin or would it be the “independence” of the wage slave in Donbas who wants nothing to do with the imperialist autocratic regime of Zelinsky as he or she would probably see it and that has firing missiles on civilian populations since 2014?
The same death cult of nationalism that informs the “invaded” with their delusional fantasy of “independence” (“the workers have no country”) also informs the “invader” – and nationalist-minded liberals like you and PGB.
I still await an attempt by you or PGB to justify the continuation of the war from Ukraine´s standpoint when it’s pretty obvious that the counteroffensive has failed and that continuing the war means passing a needless death sentence on thousands more Ukrainian workers whose lives you pretend to be so concerned about
PGB
It is difficult to know where to start with dissecting the utter nonsense you come out with. I take it you are some sort of liberal and so perhaps will find it difficult to comprehend the deep repugnance socialists feel towards nationalism and flag-waving that you refer to.
You write almost as if socialists are indifferent to the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine and to the consequences for the local population, On the contrary, the very ideology you endorse as a liberal – nationalism – lies behind the actions of the invader just as much as the invaded. We oppose it in both instances. You have that much in common with the hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine – your unwavering belief in the historical fiction called the “nation”. We don’t.
While we are at it, what is your view of Donbas when it decided to break away from Ukraine following the illegal 2014 coup there? What´s sauce for the goose is surely sauce for the gander as well. Do you condemn the Ukrainian military´s bombardment of Donbas since 2014 (and in contravention of the Minsk agreement) with the loss of some 8000 civilian lives (if my memory serves me correctly)? I bet you don’t. I bet you have conveniently forgotten about that but that was part of the reason why Russia invaded was it not? Again I am not in the least trying to justify that invasion. I am just pointing out that like all nationalists you present a very one-sided simplistic version of history in favour of your own preferred nation.
Then we have the current military situation which makes the case for an immediate cessation of war all the stronger. The Ukraine counter-offensive has run out of steam and is not going to go anywhere. Even its NATO backers are beginning to concede this point. The Russian military by all accounts is getting stronger and has learnt from the mistakes of the early part of the campaign. There is talk of them moving to take Odessa which will cut off Ukraine from the sea. There is also some signs of them moving westwards up in the northern sector. And yet the Zelensky regime dreams on about retaking Donbas and Crimea, a dream which presumably you and Lizzie45 share never mind what the people living there might think about that.
For all the delirious rubbish posted by the MSM every day in my feed, Ukraine is running out of options. It has lost so many soldiers and equipment that it is but a pale shadow of what it once was. As I understand, it has not been able to penetrate even the first line of defense set up by the Russians (of which there are 3) and seems less and less likely to do so with every passing day.
This was the context of my earlier comment that it made pragmatic sense to end the war now rather than waste thousands more lives in a pointless military adventure. But it seems you and Lizzie45 don’t seem to care much about those lives that will wasted. You don’t value them above the importance you attach to your own flag-waving nationalist idealism and that sacrosanct nation-state you genuflect towards.
You lecture us socialists about what the Ukrainian workers want. Well, for your information more and more of them want to escape Ukraine and avoid the fighting. But that lunatic zealot, Zelensky, and his regime have widened the conscription net to ensure a larger supply of cannon fodder to serve the fanatical goal of retaking Donbas and Crimea. Even kids are being called up. Ukrainians who fled Ukraine are now at risk of being deported back to Ukraine.
Of course, when things go pear-shaped it will be alright for Mr Zelensky. He can afford to play wargames now while the Ukrainian working class suffers. He can use his millions to find a safe haven in the US or anywhere else in the world that would have him. (I understand he has already purchased one or two expensive homes abroad). That is if he is not deposed and put on trial first – if not assassinated.
One or two things you said are true, though. It is undoubtedly true that the majority of Ukrainian workers are nationalist-minded – like the majority everywhere else. But since when does being in the majority make your opinion automatically right? I am sure the majority of North Korean workers enthusiastically endorse the repulsive Kim Jung Un regime. Are we supposed to think that the regime there must be OK because it has mass support?
Socialists have never been deterred by the fact that we are at the moment a tiny minority so what is the point of you telling us what you think the majority of Ukrainian workers might think? What they might think doesn’t necessarily make them right
Being willing to die for a capitalist state is beyond stupid. Let’s say it like it is. What is the point of it? There is no sense of national glory to experience when you are dead. When you are dead you are dead. Thats it. Anyone with any sense would want to make a decision that would ensure they remain alive.
Personally, I don’t give a fig about the “national humiliation” one is supposed to feel upon surrendering. At least one would still be alive. You might want to go on about the oppression that Ukrainian workers would experience under Russian rule. It would probably be no worse than what the people in Donbas or Crimea would experience under Ukrainian rule. Remember the horrendous acts that those Ukrainian Nazis did to those people in Odesa – set alight a building with many trapped inside. There are plenty of other examples.
The point is that war brutalises everyone who engages in it. From whatever angle you care to look at it the only rational sane and humane option is to end this barbaric war now and without further delay.
Incidentally, Mason has apparently been having difficulty in getting selected as a Labour candidate.
___________________
Mason is such a disappointment and has sunk in my estimation. Like people in the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, he takes this rather moronic view that anyone who opposes the continuation of the war in Ukraine must ipso facto be a Russian stooge It does not matter how many times you tell people like that that one is just as much opposed to the Putin regime as one is to the Zelensky regime, it makes no difference. They still come out with this same dumb response.
Wrong on all counts, suckers… 🙂
But thanks anyway for revealing your true colors
_______________________________Lizzie45
I don’t think so
I don’t think we have been wrong on ANY counts
I´m proud to have “revealed” my true colours which is vehement opposition to toxic nationalism and the criminal insanity of capitalism´s wars. Something you are clearly not concerned with….
“The reality is that we do not support the killing of our fellow workers and we do not instigate the murders of any member of the working class.”
Exactly. I don’t see what the issue is Paula. Anyone who supports that and the cause of nationalism should be vigorously opposed. You´ve opposed this stupid barbaric war in no less vigorous terms and good on you
I didn’t realise Lizzie45 was a pro-Ukrainian nationalist, I thought she was a buddy of that pro-Russian nationalist troll True Scotsman who used to frequent this forum. At any rate, she has now shown her true colours
“Slava Ukraini!” eh Lizzie45? No wonder she has been so belittling towards socialists of late…
Of course you can’t, with your overly simplistic world view.
Yet every time a kindergarten, school or hospital is bombed; every time atrocious war crimes, rapes and hideous acts of torture are uncovered; every time a family weeps over the grave of a loved one, the obligation to resist such barbarism is reinforced.————————————–
So I take it then that you consider it perfectly justifiable even obligatory to continue this barbaric ridiculous war in order to avenge the “war crimes, rapes and hideous acts of torture”. Who do you have in mind to be the target of this revenge? Or, talking about simplistic worldviews, do you imagine one side is squeaky clean and the other side full of nasty war criminals?
War brutalizes everyone and here you are, warmongering and calling for revenge. It’s a bit pathetic don’t you think? What’s that gonna achieve? I tell you what it’s gonna achieve – yet more “war crimes, rapes and hideous acts of torture” and innocent civilians on both sides being killed in their sleep by missiles. And so it will go on and on – tit for tat, tat for tit until there is nothing left to fight over and nobody left to fight.
My comment was with reference the so-called Ukrainian counter-offensive which. four months in. has made very little impression on the front line but has already cost the regime thousands of lives It is fairly obvious that Ukraine stands no chance of achieving its goal of retaking Donbas and Crimea and may very well lose more territory if and when the expected Russian offensive starts up (again). That was the context in which I said: “I cannot understand the mentality of those who want to drag it out any longer just so they can stick some tacky piece of cloth on a flagpole somewhere”. It is stupid even from a capitalist standpoint let alone from a socialist standpoint. And it means throwing thousands of more lives into the meat grinder to achieve little or nothing.
And here you are suggesting such action is not only justified but obligatory FFS. I will assume you have suddenly taken leave of your senses and have not thought it through
It looks like there is some kind of concerted movement backed up by the nationalistic-minded Ukraine Solidarity campaign and misguided individuals like Paul Mason to get the British Trade Union movement to support increased military aid for Ukraine.
https://labourlist.org/2023/09/why-unions-must-not-vote-to-support-open-ended-war-against-russia/
Mason himself has unironically compared Ukraine to the Republican side in the Spanish civil side. While I have never considered Ukraine to be a fascist state there are unquestionably fascistic elements in the regime and its military (as there are on the Russian side as well)
This stupid war seems destined to drag on for a long time with thousands more lives being lost utterly pointlessly in the meat grinder. I cannot understand the mentality of those who want to drag it out any longer just so they can stick some tacky piece of cloth on a flagpole somewhere. It’s sick.
Let’s hope, for your party’s sake, that Danny picks up more votes than the 11 Shannon Phileas Fogg Kennedy, or whatever his/her name was, received in a recent local election, and who, according to the grapevine, threw in the party towel shortly afterwards in desperation.
………………
You love taking the piss, don’t you? Never anything helpful or constructive to say. Talk about a wet towel. Got anything else that you can do that would brighten up what is otherwise presumably a miserable existence? Why are you so obsessed if you are so convinced we are going nowhere, eh? I can’t fathom it. Weird (to say the least)
So you’re saying that people don’t like change but a minority was able to enact change against the wishes of that majority?
What on earth are you going on about? Reference was being made to the transition from Feudalism to Capitalism where the overwhelming majority, the peasantry, had no say in the matter
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Given that there WAS a transition from feudalism to capitalism even if the overwhelming majority, according to you, had no say in the matter (really?), what could have prompted the minority in this case to push for a change in this direction?
According to your dogmatic arch-conservative interpretation of history, “People generally hate change, particularly change which is untried and untested”. Well at some point in time capitalism was most definitely “untried and untested” so what, according to you prompted the minority then to try it????
It’s the same with your assertion (with its Thatcher-like overtones of “there being no alternative”) that since people generally hate change, particularly change which is untried and untested…” capitalism remains the only game in town.”
What makes you so cocksure that this is the case and what makes your position any different from, say, the feudal nobility who could not conceive of a world in which capitalism prevailed and they were reduced a mere sideshow or beheaded?
ps On the subject of people generally “hating change” wasn’t one of the core ideals of the Enlightenment period that of continual progress and improvement? Have people abandoned these ideals today in your opinion?
