COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, December 04, 2006

Iraq is nothing compared to the prairie fire spreading over Latin America.

While we are obsessed with the mission to bring Democracy to Iraq and the Middle East, we may have missed something more important and relevant to our own well-being and future. Latin America is turning a hard left.

In Latin America the revolutionary impulse flourishes, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) in Uruguay, Pachakutic in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, the FARC and ELN in Colombia, the FMLN in El Salvador, in Mexico, the Zapatistas and the smoldering resentments of the supporters of Andrés López Obrador are all part of a mix that will affect the United States for the next fifty years. The Sandinistas are even back in power in Nicaragua. Nowhere on the entire planet is socialism and communism making more gains than in the Americas.

It is not just a passing fad. It is now structural and gaining a momentum of its own. While we spend untold billions on airport security looking for Islamists, millions of undocumented Latin Americans are entering the United States. We have no idea who they are, their criminal history or their intentions. Yesterday Hugo Chavez won another six-year term with 60 % of the vote. When was the last time an American president won sixty per cent? How did he get that level of support? It is not through a pithy slogan. There is no Spanish version of "stay the course." It is a process known to Marxists since they came into existence. It always includes the schools, health care and the basic necessities of life.

The lessons taught by dedicated Marxists will stay with these children their entire lives. Many of those indoctrinated and converted will bring their ideology to the United States. Big city and small town school districts, already controlled by the progressive left will be fertile ground for neo-Marxists.

For a little flavor as to how the process works, how the Left is winning in Latin America, and what they have in store for the rest of the Americas, read the last part of an interview with one of the many architects of the New Left in Latin America:

Higher Education in the Bolivarian Revolution
An Interview with Andrés Eloy Ruiz



If you had told someone a decade ago that the educational system was going to admit 340,000 new university students in three years, they would have said it was strictly impossible. But the Bolivarian education system has done much more than this: in education and in other areas the revolution makes “leaps forward” that exceed what was previously imaginable.

When the extraordinary becomes quotidian, then we are in a revolution – this is something that Che said. When we alphabetized a million and a half people in one year, that was extraordinary. Compared to the fact that, before, 8000 people were alphabetized each year – compared with that, well the numbers now are extraordinary. That is quantitative reading – achieving the incorporation of everyone – but there is also a qualitative reading. The misiones are not only a success for the government: they are a success for and by for the people. The misiones exist because there is a commitment on the part of 1.5 million people to learn how to read and write. That is a qualitative value. In the our most successful year between the election of Chávez in 1998 and 2003, we incorporated 37,000 into higher education – we were proud because in 1998 it was 12,000. Yet in November of 2003, 90,000 people were incorporated into higher education. How was that done? Because we had the commitment from local authorities, the commitment from the state, the commitment from the people. The people supporting the people, that is the success of the misiones. That is the most important qualitative success – and it is experiential. The people educating the people, the people saving the people. The greatest accomplishment of Chávez has been his empowerment of the people. The people are taking a leading role here. Of the Cuban doctors who came for Barrio Adentro, more than half are hosted by families. Can you imagine the infrastructure that would be needed to host 10,000 doctors near their Barrio Adentro module? But we had 10,000 Venezuelan patriots who said that they had a room in their home for the doctors, or had a spare room that could be turned into a consulting room for a Barrio Adentro. In the educational misiones, their success is not because we produce the books and give them free to our students – that is our obligation. The success of the misiones is due to a will on the part of the people to overcome, to improve themselves and their communities. And it is the obligation of the government apparatus to legitimate that effort.

No matter what, the government will be there to support the people. Something new and important is the Ley de consejos comunales. The power in the hands of the people. I now wonder, for instance, why is it that the consejos comunales are not the ones telling us who should attend Sucre. If we think that the neighbor does not care enough about his community to know who should go to school, we are wrong. We cannot take students into the higher education system based solely on the numbers of their exams or the school they come from. Of the 1000 that graduated at the Bolivariana recently, 600 of them would not have made it on the number, because they did not receive a privileged education. And yet all of them are going back to their communities and working there.

We are not yet in the time of the harvest. We have planted and we are seeing the first plants sprout, and we are watering them. The first shoots will make a revolution – that will be the harvest. If you ask me what is the most important qualitative thing – I will say, to have, as a government, believed in the power of the people. Believing that the people could create a Misión Sucre space or a Barrio Adentro in someone’s living room. Believing that it was the people’s initiative to do so. This is what makes our revolution. And the attacks on the revolution aim to discredit with a numerical algorithm what is being done, on an experiential level, with the people. But in addition to that, we are doing it in terms that can be measured numerically. The worst thing about those who are denigrating the misiones is that they are denying that the people are a historical subject that is capable of carrying a revolution forward.

We are not in socialism yet. We are just beginning to walk the path that will take us toward a 21st century socialism. That is why Chávez talks about 2021 and 2030 – because he is conscious of the scope of the goals that have been set. From 2002-2003 – the year when this process was radicalized – to here, this is not enough time.


Interview date: 13 and 16 October, 2006. Translated by Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert.

80 comments:

  1. ""In August, when we started Operation Together Forward to secure Baghdad, we called on a bunch of units to assist," said U.S. Army Col. Douglass S. Heckman, the commander for the 9th Division Military Transition Team. "This division was the only one that moved into the operation. The others balked."

    But Friday's battle suggested that even Iraq's best trained and equipped division is far from having the ability to operate independently. Heckman said attrition and liberal leave policies meant that only 68% of the 9th division is even on duty at any given time.

    Another American advisor complained that the division had only 65% of the weapons and other equipment that it had been allocated by the U.S. "

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  2. Mideast allies near a state of panic
    U.S. leaders' visits to the region reap only warnings and worry.

    WASHINGTON — President Bush and his top advisors fanned out across the troubled Middle East over the last week to showcase their diplomatic initiatives to restore strained relationships with traditional allies and forge new ones with leaders in Iraq.

    But instead of flaunting stronger ties and steadfast American influence, the president's journey found friends both old and new near a state of panic.
    Mideast leaders expressed soaring concern over upheavals across the region that the United States helped ignite through its invasion of Iraq and push for democracy — and fear that the Bush administration may make things worse.

    President Bush's summit in Jordan with the Iraqi prime minister proved an awkward encounter that deepened doubts about the relationship.

    Vice President Dick Cheney's stop in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, yielded a blunt warning from the kingdom's leaders.
    And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's swing through the West Bank and Israel, intended to build Arab support by showing a new U.S. push for peace, found little to work with.

    In all, visits designed to show the American team in charge ended instead in diplomatic embarrassment and disappointment, with U.S. leaders rebuked and lectured by Arab counterparts.

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  3. Latin American is going hard left, or just down, down, down?

    You have to wonder, the old post-Spanish demi-feudal order of uber-rich and peons appears to be crumbling across the place. You must also mention the explosive growth of what appears to violent gangs evolving into bona fide slum tribes in Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico and elsewhere. The constantly multiplying poor and dispossessed (mestizo, amerindian, black) have finally started to get their votes together and overcome the establishment parties of the rich fraction (spanish, white). Of course they vote (just as they do as immigrants in the West) for the populist, socialist, welfare state that will dispossess the wealthy. That the commies will just be another bunch of opportunistic thieves is in little doubt, but unlike the rich parties they will practice destabilising radical revolutionary robbery, as opposed to the stable establishment kind.

    And, yet again, democracy delivers the government we do not want.

    And the neocons, for whom democracy is religion, and share the liberal assumption that all religions and cultures are equally valid, as long as one man one vote is the commandment, should be hung from yonder kapok tree as an offering to Tyz.

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  4. Peacekeeper. It is astonishing that our rulers are so ignorant of the real lessons in history. Instead they legislate and dictate policies based upon shallow Cliffnotes legendary versions of the past that pass for truth.

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  5. The red scares of the 1900s was driven by the fear that maybe there was something to communism, and that it really could bury the free market system economically. Now we know different, so if Latin American wants another bite of that shit sandwich they are welcome to it.

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  6. Guess who will have to clean up the dirty wrappers.

    nothing to worry about:

    Iran welcomes Chavez victory as win against US

    Iran hailed on Monday the presidential election victory of fellow US foe Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, saying it reflected Latin America's opposition to Washington's "arrogant attitudes".

    Chavez was re-elected by a landslide on Sunday, handing him an ample mandate to broaden his promised socialist revolution and challenge US influence in Latin America. He is the fourth leftist to win an election in the region in the past five weeks.

    "The victory of freedom seekers and independent characters in Venezuela and Latin America indicates the growing tendency of the people in that region to be really independent and keep their distance from the American arrogant attitudes," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

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  7. John Bolton, US Representitive to the UN has resigned.

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  8. Bolton's resignation was inevitable, still a shame.

    Ah, its seems Litvinenko will indeed be buried as a muslim. Now that business is really going of the edge of the wierdness scale.

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  9. doug,
    Your LA Times story is indicitive of putting foreign troops into action with US troops that did not train them.

    For any "green" foreign unit the "Advisors" have to take them from boot to combat vet.
    The US SFC tells of yelling at the Iraqi, recieving "dumb looks" in return. Doubt the SFC was yelling in Arabic or that the Iraqi driver spoke English. Of course he got a "dumb look" in return.

    Integrating the troops of different countries takes a long time to accomplish. But even in the US it takes more than four years to stand up a Stryker Brigade, from scratch.

    It is unfortunate that we did not begin integrating the forces 48 months ago, instead of Mr Rumsfeld listing it as an option on 5 Nov 06. We are so far behind the curve, now in a crisis management mode, that success is not likely.

    In WWII, when the Germans had ambushes set along the urban avenues of approach, the US GIs drove through the buildings, abandoning the avenues. A T-72 could do the same thing, but did not.

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  10. That LA times article is another kick ass piece of journalism

    "Apache helicopters beat down on the dilapidated tenements, drilling hundreds of .50-caliber rounds..."

    Holy shit! They rearmed the apaches with .50 cals?

    walked into a deadly ambush...

    Walked in? Thats good, because the rest of the article suggests that all the fighting seemed to be done from vehicles, the classic street fighting no-no.

    And "deadly" huh? I guess everyone in the kill zone was hit as should be in an ambush, let alone a deadly one, but wait ...

    "..the 11-hour battle was over, one Iraqi soldier had been killed and six others wounded.."

    7 casualties in 11 hours of street fighting??? Not only is that not Stalingrad or Fallujah, I suggest it is not downtown LA.

    "...Baghdad raid", "...major counterinsurgency operation...", "...were in pursuit of..." "The offensive..." "..plans to let the Iraqis take the lead in the battle.." "..assault..."

    Thats an awfull lot of doctrinally different ways to describe one operation. Either the journalist is a dope, or the op was a conceptual mess, or both.

    "This was a coordinated, complex attack," Boczar said of the insurgent ambush. "And the way they maneuvered shows us that they were ready for us."

    Wait, ambush, or attack? Or an
    ambush with counter-attack? Or ...

    Aerial drone footage captured before the assault appeared to show them positioning themselves in preparation for the raid

    And they went in anyway ... O_O

    "Iraqi unit well regarded." followed by "We didn't do any reconnaissance..."

    Jeeezus.

    "The number of insurgents in the area was estimated at more than 100."

    They had armour and air support and they fought a company (-) of terrs for ELEVEN HOURS, lost one and seven, killed 27 and captured 43. Well, after the result that doesn't sound a bad performance, but considering the descriptions of the operation, the only explanation is that the terrs were both clueless and outgunned. Competent defending infantry (like the Chechens in 1994) would have wasted the bunch of them.

    The MSM guy who wrote the article is clueless. But we expect that, no, not expect, but ... demand! YES we DEMAND cluelessness in the MSM.

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  11. Latin America can very well go hard left. More jobs and opportunities for the rest of us, and less competitors, I say.

    Not that they don't have stuff that they can produce cheaper and better, but as WC sez, they can gorge themselves on the shit sandwich some more. Just don't vomit on us when they get sick, okay?

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  12. Wobbly Guy has a good point--except for, the marxies if they have the time will build themselves Castro-style secret police goon squads which make it exceedingly difficult to use the same democracy to oust them as they used to get in to begin with. so, it really doesn't matter how sick we all get of eating shit sandwiches, they are likely to be stuck to the menu for a generation or two. That means, little wars, by the dozens, as kleptocrats always need whatever the other guy's got. I dunno--buy Lockheed?

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  13. Socialism is the way. South America is the highway to your soft underbelly. We will take back you land and use your bones to fuel our fires.
    The Red Banner flying high and you are so pitiful to stop it.

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  14. You just say that because you are jealous of our wealth, and would rather steal it than earn your own. In the end we will wipe our behinds with your silly red banner.

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  15. That's the real point of challenge, buddy.

    There is a land bridge all the way to DC, thousands are infiltrating the southern frontier, daily, already. These folk, today, tend to be economic refugees.
    As the Socialist Revolution gains in velocity and violence the refugees will not be limited to economic. The folks heading north will not have cash in their pocket, nor will they all be workers.
    Already, according to the latest Congressional Report, upwards of 8% of those living in the US, today, are here illegally. Just making them "legal" will not solve the greater challenge.
    Expect the flow rates to increase, while the South is dragged down by the Socialist Policies.

    The idea that we can wish them well, eating their shit sandwiches, is short sighted, to say he least.

    No one can walk to the US from either Afghanistan or Iraq.

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  16. that's what I was trying to say to Wobbly guy--we can't just wait out the cycle, as we did in the 30s, the last times the Reds were hot. well, I guess we can if we have to, but not without some major internal-control tightening up. if Oil falls $10, Venezuela will be a gigantic Mariel Boatlift to you-know-where.

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  17. "John Bolton, US Representitive to the UN has resigned."

    So soon after that Fred Barnes article in the Weekly Standard, too...

    Crap.

    I'd rather someone have papercut my eyeballs and disinfected them with a lemon juice wash than to see this happen.

    Oh well.

    Perhaps there's a bright side?

    Maybe with Bolton gone, we can finally get on about the business of dismissing the U.N as having any utility whatsoever...

    (Hey - I can dream... )

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  18. Maybe they'll put Alcee Hastings in. Someone who speaks the language, you know.

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  19. AAAAHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEE!!!!

    More papercuts, Pleeeeezzzzzze!!!

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  20. 7 French
    2 Belgian
    1 American

    Arrested in Egypt. A terror cell ready to strike. They were doing Islamic studies in Egypt.

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  21. h/t Gateway, from the White House:

    I am deeply disappointed that a handful of United States Senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate. They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time. This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their Nation.

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  22. From Westhawk this morning:

    "Anonymous said...
    I went over to the EB the other day. I discovered that they have only one table and about five chairs.
    Mostly a bunch of has beens who sit around listening to one guy pontificate on everything. Boring to snoring to coma.
    They like to come over here, filch an idea nad then run back and listen to the bloviating master tell them how it really is, or not.
    And they must have run out of urinal cakes cause the men's room stinks. You know how old men are, drip on the floor."

    Where have I heard this before?

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  23. somebody who likes thinking about men's rooms?

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  24. Buddy-DR has some of it right, but I get the feeling he's being too pessimistic too. I'm not quite sure how the immigration issue is shaping up, but the folks in the US have got to realise that unrestricted immigration isn't doing them any good. If they need the foreign workers, fine, but do they really have to make them voters too?

    In Singapore, we register every foreign worker(oh, how horrible!), and if they're illegal, we give them some hard whacks on the ass(you wicked barbarians!), and pack them off(you nasty capitalists!). No Singaporean has yet complained of this.

    Is there some kinda death wish in the United States, and if so, how much of it is due to the Gramscian scheme?

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  25. You got me, wobbly--maybe it's 40 years of a Gramsci-lite school system teaching us that we're evil slavers and indian-killers, or maybe it's the idea that immigrant voters will all be USA-loving capitalists or they wouldn't have come here in the first place.

    But as a whole, it's a bunch of bleeding-heart thinking that will end up being, like all mal-adaptations, self-correcting, when we evolve into something as yet unknown.

    Kudos on the Singaporean system, BTW. Harsh as it's made out to be, the results are spectacular, and the citizens are the beneficiaries.

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  26. Allen, I think the anonymous guy put up the post over here. He left in a snit with a bloody nose. I thought one of you old "has beens" hit him. Then I realized one of you left the lid up and it fell on him when he was sniffing the porcelain.

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  27. Hell, I'm tickled pink to be a has-been, because what I has-been is somebody bustin ass with my back and hands 24/7/365 for most of a lifetime *just* so I could finally just lately sit back and maneuver capital for the daily beans. It ain't been easy, and it's better to be a has-been than a never-was nor will-be, which is what that turd sounds like he is.

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  28. Buddy,

    I always hear you talking about this and that investment - do you have favorite "instruments" to maneuver capital around in? Commodities? Mutual funds? Equity?

    I'd love to be in such a position as you describe - afraid I don't have the capital just yet, what with alot of income destined to pay back student loans and further schooling. I did score some BOT stock early on before the merger with the CME and some MSFT at 23 that should do well in the next few years. MSFT's still a great buy, what with all the nerdy cynicism that distrusts its 250 billion market capitalization.

    Thing that kills me is not buying ImClone when Sam Waksal and Martha Stewart drove it down to around 10 I believe. It was back to upwards of 60 in no time - had a big contract with GSM or Bristol meyers - some big billion dollar deal that wasnt about to fail on account of some shady administration. Melodramatic markets are wonderful things at times...

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  29. "I am deeply disappointed that a handful of United States Senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate. They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time. This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their Nation."

    Buddy, your quote shook some dust from an old memory... this goes back to the hanging chad business from 2000...

    I think I recall that while all that business was going on, the Dems somehow obstructed the composing of the new administration's "Latin America Team" for lack of a better description... in other words, we went for a significant period of time with no one representing American interests in that part of the world...

    Maybe one of you can recall the details and flesh this out beyond my recollection? I'd do it myself, but I have to get back to the job - I'm onsite near the western tip of Lake Superior at the moment... gonna be -4F tonight!

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  30. Wobbly, there's not a whole bunch of no-brainer entry points in the USA mkts right now--I'm coasting on some energy, gold, commodity and basic mtrls stocks that I bought, over time, on the way up for the most part. My next major move is not "in" but probably "out", but not yet, not until the feeling is right (IOW, after I lose my profits, probably).

    BUT, there's always a bull market somewhere, as my guru Jim Cramer says! And I do trade in out of (selected by hunch & attention) some of his plays, in small lots. The site, and the show on CNBC, are good guides, he is a "maker".

    Don't fret over "misses" like Imclone. You can use the options market to recapture that leverage any time you want--if you want. There's always a big "miss"--on the loss side as well as the gain side. Risks not taken ought to be carried in your mind "double-entry", for peace-of-mind's sake.

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  31. Catherine, I certainly was not referring to you at all. I never thought of it. I do not take the comment that seriously as if it were meaningful the person would use their real name because they would not care what we thought. I have come to respect your commentary and I do not see the purpose or value in the personal attacks. They are especially difficult as there is no eye to eye or facial contact on the internet.

    I am sorry you are not commenting here or at the BC. I have enjoyed most of your comments. We had our little to do once. I regretted it and said so. I hope you reconsider and I believe I speak for most if not all here.

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  32. Catherine, come back and write some more, dammit! darn it, I mean. ding dangit.

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  33. Long live the Socialist Revolution!!
    We have a strong and mighty maximum leader again in our vanguard, El Primo Chavez.
    We have the Chinese and the Russians growing stronger with us, as you slither away from another defeat. America is a paper tiger. You are the treacherous ally that everyone knows now. Who would stand with you? Only a fool in your last days of empire. You will be awash with socialism because you cannot resist the tide of history and because your own people now desire it and are allowing it to happen. We have brought down your history, mixed your population with those who are socialists and you cannot resist. It is beautiful to behold. We have done all of this with your own laws. Look at your major cities today, Los Angeles,New York,Detroit,Chicago are all socialist. Even your courts allow land to be taken from the poor and given to the rich. This only helps our cause. If you will not protect the many who are poor you will not be able to save the few who are rich. Only your poor states with low populations are not already socialist. They will be very easy to tame as are all paper tigers. Your president has signed a pact to make US Canada Mexico one country. Your independence is over, and socialism will win. Long live the socialist revolution !!!

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  34. yes, if i can endure the pineapple nutjob known as "dung" or whatever, shirley you can endure teresita!

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  35. Catherine,

    Allen and 2164th can of course speak for themselves but I don't think anyone was implying you were responsible - maybe I missed something but I never thought you were an antagonistic poster to these parts. I'd hope you'd find enough enjoyment participating that you could rebuff the spirited interventions of nutcases. I think many share your sentiments and observations, but they may just prefer to ignore the drama and ridiculousness.

    I hope you are not too deterred from participating further - I'm not aware of the slur you're talking about - :/

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  36. ...and remember, y'all, anonymous typed all that with one hand, and standing up, as last week he fed his crack-addicted pet gator his other arm as well as his ass, while sitting on the mud of the swamp of a Saturday eve, and feeling both generous and immortal, as well as fresh out of Kibbles.

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  37. bobal, e*trade, schwab, ameritrade, are the biggies, absolutely honest, deep, and cheap.

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  38. bobal, search [kulaks] and see what anon has in mind for you.

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  39. BTW, bobal, you're right as far as Schwab, some years ago, before several reorgs, being a much sharkier outfit than it is now.

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  40. When they were the only discount broker, their custmer service was much poorere than it became after thheir poor cistomer service allowed some real competition to arise. Anon will not "get" that concept--that's why Russians and Cubans don't have washing machines, microwaves, cars, bathrooms, life-expectancies, and shit like that.

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  41. Los americanos gordos,
    "It is a process known to Marxists since they came into existence. It always includes the schools, health care and the basic necessities of life.

    The lessons taught by dedicated Marxists will stay with these children their entire lives. Many of those indoctrinated and converted will bring their ideology to the United States. Big city and small town school districts, already controlled by the progressive left will be fertile ground for neo-Marxists."

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  42. Anonymous, I addressed some of those imbedded heuristics here. As you can readily see, the stochastic equilibriums assumed in the linear dialectic cannot hold in the advanced state of non-duplicating intensity-decay.

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  43. Though in a diluted form, Marxism has gotten under the skin of Western intellectuals. One no longer speaks about Marx and Marxism, but its patterns of thinking have become an integral element of Western scholarship, intellectual work, the mentality of journalists, of artists, of many politicians.
    Marxists such as Fanon and Che Guevara have transposed the conflict between capitalists and the proletariat to the international scene, the conflict between developed and underdeveloped nations Marxists have not been able to agree as to whether the ultimate revolution ought to or even must be violent, or whether violence might not be replaced by political moves permitting a parliamentary takeover.
    But does not the strength of Marxism, its bewitching spell, consist mainly in its ability to offer the simplest possible solution? People do feel uneasy; they risk unhappiness looking for a way out of their predicament. Marxism pinpoints an enemy and names a solution; it offers a doctrine of salvation that is simpler than any other produced by the occidental world.
    This time, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they are among us. They have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this fact that constitutes part of our predicament.

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  44. 2164th said, "We had our little to do once. I regretted it and said so. I hope you reconsider and I believe I speak for most if not all here."

    I think everyone gets one or two to do's.

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  45. Buddy Larsen said, "Catherine, come back and write some more, dammit! darn it, I mean. ding dangit."

    You know, more participation is always good, and it helps to look at other people without always attributing dark motives to them. Some people just want to comment on topics that interest them, and they don't much care if a person's views flop around a little.

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  46. From my experience, I always did better with the ladies with a smile and buying them a drink as opposed to giving them a cross hook and a head butt.

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  47. Yep--tossing out "en arguendo" comments don't mean you really agree with yourself--there's the 'devil's advocate' debate premise. Adds content and interest, at some loss of cred & gravitas, but for a blog often a good trade, as it forces the opposite view to clarify and state. Look at what anonymous (my ass) is doing.

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  48. The reference to the north american union is a tell that he/she may be a regular. Or, again, someone knowledgeable of buttons and eager to press them.

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  49. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  50. A master of the cut and paste, is the anonymous poster.
    Someone that knows it is not what is said, but getting spelling the name and the link right.

    My question, which of us is considered the "pontificater", and whom are the dutiful listeners.

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  51. Allen, you're right, because if you don't enjoy your work, then your work is not working, because it's too much work.

    However, if you do enjoy your work, then your work is still not working because it's not work.

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  52. Or in the case of farming & ranching, buddy, an expensive hobby.

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  53. well, you be the best prognosticator, rat--so it's probably you he means.

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  54. well, then, it's habu

    he dropped a post in the other day and no one seemed to notice.

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  55. You are too tied up to face the arguments or the truth that bears upon you.
    You are losing your way of life. Your "classless" society that divides everything by class. You are well down the road to the bloodless revolution and full acceptance of socialism. There is no arument from any of you on this point. How can there be when you look at your society?
    The rich oppress the poor with the help of your Wall Street, your Enrons,your WorldComs. Pension funds go unfunded as the rich buy haciendas of magnificents.
    Your young are being raised by the state. Your family is a myth. Old people are avoided.
    Viva paper towels!!

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  56. re farming/ranching, that's why every farmer and rancher you'll ever meet, will sooner or later say, in some jargon or another, that it's the lifestyle he/she is after, and will often admit that he/she ain't no good fer nuthin else.

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  57. Except for that half assed gator bait fella.

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  58. Anon, you're right, it is horrible, and that's why Americans are tumbling out the exits, fighting to immigrate to Koober and Rusher and Afiker.

    I think the gator got the ass whole, according to the news.

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  59. The kernel, on the farming/ranching, is can you cash-flow the groceries, and will the land be appreciating under your feet day by day. A "no" or even a "maybe" on either question, and you lose.

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  60. "His Eminence", that is how Mr Bush refers to Mr al-Hakim, the Badr Brigade commander and leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq

    Which leaves no room for doubt, the is no War on Islam, no clash of civilizations.
    At least not as far as Mr Bush is concerned. So many people refused to take him at his word.

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  61. 100,000 happy campers outside the presidential palace in Beirut have got him by the short hairs.

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  62. The correalation of forces is necessitating an advance to the rear.

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  63. " Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty" JFK

    Yes, we will do this until the news cycle turns against us or someone gets angry with us.

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  64. Alert! Alert!

    Holy Cow!

    Catherine,

    My post was supposed to say, "You did NOT cross my mind." Please, accept my apology.

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  65. We are not yet in the time of the harvest. We have planted and we are seeing the first plants sprout, and we are watering them. The first shoots will make a revolution – that will be the harvest. If you ask me what is the most important qualitative thing – I will say, to have, as a government, believed in the power of the people. Believing that the people could create a Misión Sucre space or a Barrio Adentro in someone’s living room. Believing that it was the people’s initiative to do so. This is what makes our revolution. And the attacks on the revolution aim to discredit with a numerical algorithm what is being done, on an experiential level, with the people. But in addition to that, we are doing it in terms that can be measured numerically. The worst thing about those who are denigrating the misiones is that they are denying that the people are a historical subject that is capable of carrying a revolution forward.

    We are not in socialism yet. We are just beginning to walk the path that will take us toward a 21st century socialism. That is why Chávez talks about 2021 and 2030 – because he is conscious of the scope of the goals that have been set. From 2002-2003 – the year when this process was radicalized – to here, this is not enough time.

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  66. You capitalists even treat women as second class. You have alienated Catherine so much that she will think long and longer before posting at the table of the five.
    Viva Chavez!!

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  67. I didn't mean "unable". I meant "unwilling". Of course, in any individual case, the former could be true, whether I meant it that way or not. But i didn't, and you're obviously culpable of a broad range.

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  68. So, anon, you seek to divide us along the Jinder Gap?

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  69. Socialists arise!!

    We recognize that the name social democracy like socialism has been a much abused term but we hold that the fundamental insights of this tradition is needed now more than ever in facing the problems of our nation and world.

    The insight of socialism is that democracy and the development of human possibilities in life cannot be had when there is power and wealth concentrated in the hands of the few while the many fail to enjoy the fruits of their labor. That profit as the sole determinant in the on goings of a society crowds out other concerns from the environment to the quality of life of people. That a society which allows all to contribute and determine our future requires that all can have access to the goods of life. And that many of the problems of human life from global warming to violence here and abroad cannot be addressed until this imbalance of power and wealth, which governs so much in our world, is changed.

    The insight of social democracy is that the dramatic changes socialism calls for can only happen when there is broad levels of support across society which have deep and felt roots within that society. This is why social democracy has always sought its appeal to all people of good will in a society. But for democracy and cooperative action to take hold in a society they need to already be experienced and valued. No manifesto is able to achieve this. This is why reforms have been central to this vision because it is in those changes in society, no matter how small, when cooperation and democratic say is expanded, that people experiencing and thus valuing this demand further and more far reaching changes in a socialist direction.

    The reforms which have been secured by the hard fought struggles of people in this last century from the right to organize unions to social provisions have been under continual attack by a new changing economic order, called corporate globalization. That is corporations, no longer bound, by geographic boundaries have new leverage in punishing nations which have moved to a more democratic and cooperative direction and they have been successful in rolling back many of the important gains made by working people. This calls for new thinking to address this situation.

    But some extremists, both on the right and left, have called for the death of social democracy. We know what the right would replace this model with. A cruel social Darwinist world, a survival of the fittest, a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few. But why would the extreme left join in on the attack? They look at the reforms and gains of the last century as crumbs instead of the hard won struggles of working people. They look at the successful efforts of broad based social democratic parties from universal health care to unions which represent much of these societies and they see the foibles, limits, and compromises which mark such endeavors.

    We say though that the problem of social democracy is not with the original vision, it is the fact that some people have not kept faith with that vision. We see the limits as well but we recognize that social democracy is one of the only models, which have actually taken root in actual societies with actual peoples and therefore it has something that few other models have...it's been tested in the furnace of experience and the actual world. Ideas for their own sake will properly never gain the ascent of most people. It is only when those ideas have affects in the world, in increasing the general well being will they gain support. Socialist movements must earn support because we can actually make the world a better place, not because we have the best statements.

    This is why the Socialist Party has been such an important force for progress in the US. By participation in the greater social movements of our time, such as the labor, peace, environmental, and civil rights movements and by working with broad alliances both electoral and on the streets, important gains have been secured from the civil rights act to social security. It is this history, which is attacked by some in the party as partial, limited, not "revolutionary". But we're convinced that such folks and their move to ideology and the politics of purity is founded on fears. Fears based on the left's lack of power in this country and impatience with the ways of democratic change.

    The SP has two choices. It can divorce itself from the greater left and social movements in this country and around the world, becoming more ideological, more inward looking, and less tolerant or it can with confidence engage the greater left, moved by a vision of a more humane and democratic future, fight the rollbacks pushed by the right and place the question of social democracy in the forefront in this new century. Of course this will require courage. And it will require fresh thinking from all sides on the left as we deal with a unique set of challenges. In this we don't have road maps or detailed plans of the future.

    But we believe an open and non-dogmatic approach that is confident in our vision is not just possible but a requirement in this age. We also believe that the Socialist Party working with allies in the democratic left here and around the world can contribute to the building of a broad based movement for a more democratic and humane future. It's a daunting challenge, one that in this age of reaction seems impossible. But as socialists, dreaming the impossible and making it actual has been a feature of our activism for much of our history.

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  70. alien said...
    Crap! Alert!

    Holy Cowpie!
    Catherine,

    My post was exposed to say, "You did NOT NEVER cross my mind." Please, eccept my apulogy.

    Mon Dec 04, 06:18:56 PM EST

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  71. desert rat said...
    That's the real point of challenge, buddy.

    There is a land bridge all the way to DC, thousands are infiltrating the southern frontier, daily, already. These folk, today, tend to be economic refugees.
    As the Socialist Revolution gains in velocity and violence the refugees will not be limited to economic. The folks heading north will not have cash in their pocket, nor will they all be workers.
    Already, according to the latest Congressional Report, upwards of 8% of those living in the US, today, are here illegally. Just making them "legal" will not solve the greater challenge.
    Expect the flow rates to increase, while the South is dragged down by the Socialist Policies.

    The idea that we can wish them well, eating their shit sandwiches, is short sighted, to say he least.

    No one can walk to the US from either Afghanistan or Iraq.

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  72. 100,000 AK-47's headed norteamericanos gringo gordo

    100,000 armed and in revolt with Maximum leader Chavez as our vanguard.

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  73. Cheeses K. Reist, Habu--have you jumped the shark, and gone Commie???

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  74. I have only one word to say to Anon as the simplest way to bunk all his nonsense of Marxists for life and all that jazz.

    China.

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  75. "I have only one word to say...

    China"

    That's right
    Too many humans occupying earth would unleash the Beast again.
    That's not a good thing, is it anon? Or are you in the grave diggin' business? Then i could understand your stand.

    China is a lesson to be learned from,killin' baby girls and all, does that light your fire?

    Dialog is a damn good thing, but only if ALL are willing to come together for the cause of the One.
    One world that is, unless you got some other planet lined up to escape to.

    Just my 2 cents worth
    Dougman

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