July 16 is the 197th day of the year, there are 168 days left
Tis Boomtime, Confusion 51, 1367 YOLD
Today's number is 16
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Anti-Capitalist Meet-Up- Owning one's work: can workers manage themselves
Richard Wolff remains important in the continuing education of the left from the time when (for some of us), it was actually not a big deal to think of entry points and an Ideological State Apparatus.
Labor aristocracy remains the dominant feature of capitalism even as there has been resistance in the form of workers cooperatives. Could there be in the US context, more viable examples of workers’ self managing institutions, or Workers Self Directed Enterprises (WSDEs) to minimize the social divisions created by capitalism.
At the end of June, I posted a video here called Getting Serious about Climate Change. I was hoping for feedback and I got some. Some things were easy to fix like my mispronunciation of Arrhenius. Some things could not be fixed so easily without crippling my basic point. I traced the problem back to my over-flippant use of the term Institutionalism. My fascination with this line of thinking is largely due to my interest in its class analysis. So I have written the following in the hope that it will explain the reasoning behind that video.
The Prodigal God am I, my gifts for all that strike
their hammer upon the forge or their maul upon a spike.
Glorious toys are my passion, for they show the mind
at its fullest, the works a chorus to the direction of thought.
And to me, the thought is no more than a diagram
for the case to be put into place, gears to be arranged
and the edge honed to a sharpness unknown to all others.
Look on the beauty of my works, and give thanks
Have no doubt, the courts are being stacked with corporate elitists...not just in the US but around the world. There's no better illustration than the ongoing saga in Brazil. First while the Olympics were in Brazil the courts illegally oust Dilma as President and install Temer who failed to be elected several times. This summer past-President Lula is leading the polls, so he's sent to prison on trumped up charges...not given his constitutional rights. In Poland they are removing 27 judges from their Supreme Court. Around the world courts have been complicit with coups. Honduras comes to mind.
and it is also Sweetmorn, Confusion 50, 3184 YOLD
(for you Discordians out there)
The reference to "soft underbelly" arose from Winston Churchill's appellation of Italy being Europe's soft underbelly during WW 2.
I've always found it interesting that the United States and France both celebrate their independence days, at least in a sense, in July, just nine days apart from each other. Of course, the American and French Revolutions were somewhat different in character. For America it was more a war of national liberation against what had become an imperial master, determined to keep its colonies subservient (the crux of Tom Paine's argument in Common Sense), though there were elements of civil war and social revolution as well. France's revolution, on the contrary, began as a strictly internal affair, an upheaval against a badly outmoded form of government and social system.
Updates at the end of comments.
What we know (as opposed to Darth Cheney’s known unknowns) is that yesterday, Friday July 13 (Not april fools day, however), Deputy AJ Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russian members of GRU, a military intelligence agency, and that they had “corresponded with several Americans through the internet”, including an associate of the Trump campaign (assumedly Roger Stone).
I communicate with my grandmother via email from time to time. In the last email exchange we had we talked about my long-term joblessness situation and returning to college. She actually suggested I go into something more 'marketable' like 'business'. I told her database work and programming are some of the few things I'm actually decent at.
