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What you want to say – 9th August, 2017 August 9, 2017

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. crocodileshoes - August 9, 2017

Someone called ‘The Wichita Lineman’ ‘the first existentialist number one’. SonofStan would know who.
When I was 11, Glen Campbell was just another of those MOR Americans on tv, like Andy Williams. Now those Jimmy Webb songs, in particular, shine out when they crop up on oldies radio. Same goes for Bacharach.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2017

+1 Wichita Lineman is one of the greatest songs written. Amazing isn’t it how one has to grow into the songs. I love Bacharach but the songs are so melancholy, a little goes a long way. Melodically though near perfect.

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Michael Carley - August 9, 2017

The equivalent of those great songs and artists who were lost in the genre of the day (a lot of disco, say) and were really only appreciated when they survived to be heard properly in their own right.

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6to5against - August 9, 2017

Sometimes I like to lecture young people and tell them to admit to themselves right now that country music is great, and save themselves 20 year soft denial. They never listen. But it entertains me, so that’s ok…..

On the other hand, having accepted this truth in my own life, and having listened to some Johnny Cash, I went back to listen to his earlier stuff – the big, big hits – and couldn’t get past the crap arrangements. Maybe it wasn’t just modern listeners who were sticking country music in a narrow genre-shaped box.

But the Glen Campbell/Jimmy Web songs aren’t like that. They were really well produced with great arrangements, that stand up today. Wonderful stuff.

Incidentally, are there many more examples of a singer depending so much on one songwriter, in relatively modern times? I bet there are, unbeknownst to many of us. Or me at least.

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2. 6to5against - August 9, 2017

On the subject of GDP growth figures, does anybody else notice how we’re going back to GDP now that were talking about how great we are, and not using the adapted GNI anymore. But we’ll flip back again next week, no doubt, when its time to talk about pay rises again.

I love the economists on the radio too, telling us how we have to show restraint or risk all this ‘progress’. We can’t follow pro-cyclical polices etc etc etc…. but the same messers were there in 08/09/10 telling us we had to have cuts.

Pro cyclical on the way down. Restraint on the way up. Irish capitalism.

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3. roddy - August 9, 2017

The tennessee three were responsible for the original Johnny Cash sound and were brilliant.Legendary guitarist Luther Perkins was so renowned for lack of movement on stage that Cash once quipped “Luther’s been dead for a couple of years,he just does’nt know it yet”!

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4. GW - August 9, 2017
5. GW - August 9, 2017

Dumb neolibs dept.

I’ve been spending a fair amount of time up a ladder putting up election posters on lampposts. It being Germany there are many rules about which lampposts may be decorated and competition is fierce.

In the process you get to scratch your head at the slogans of other parties. By far the daftest one so far stems from the FDP – the corrupt German PD-lookalike which was a favourite of ex(ish) Nazis after WWII.

It features one Christian Lindner – a failed dot com ‘Entrepreneur’ and now golden boy of the resurrected neo-lib party. The creature is gazing into his – presumably iPhone – and the slogan goes: ‘Digital first, bedenken second.’

Literally – because peppering your German with bits of English when perfectly good German words exist is an annoyingly widespread thing, especially in ‘entrepreneurial’ circles.

It means roughly ‘First digitise, then think about it’.

The reference is presumably to the still not very good IP network connections in rural parts of Germany, and in some small towns. One of the things that the neo-liberal era has conclusively demonstrated is that the (semi) private provision of what should be universal infrastructure is:

a) expensive (because extracted profits and middleman chains),
b) inefficient (because of the duplication of infrastructure) and
c) never universal (some places aren’t profitable to provision).

It’s no different in Germany than elsewhere.

But the above slogan is like something out of the late 1990s, not the current era of increasing oligopilisation and universal surveillance of the digital world. But I fear a certain kind of voter will lap it up.

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GW - August 9, 2017

You can see it in all its glory here:

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2017

Wow, I see what you mean but just to be clear and apologies if this seems like a dumb question what party are you putting posters up for, DL?

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GW - August 9, 2017

See my next contribution below: 🙂

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2017

Cool. Cool cool cool! 🙂

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6. GW - August 9, 2017

Good reading here from a former trades union leader and current die Linke politician on the relationship between die Linke and the trades unions.

Partly in an attempt to address these challenges, Katja Kipping and I have been working towards renewal of our party’s culture and strategy as a “connective party” since 2012. This comes from the insight that a change in the relation of forces in society is the only possible basis for shifting the balance of forces within the state, and thus for even considering participation in government.

Socialist parties must not limit themselves to the parliamentary representation of existing social forces. Their function is to actively build the class power of working people and social hegemony for emancipatory and socialist goals. With the erosion of the welfare-state class compromise in neoliberal capitalism, the balance of forces between capital and labor has shifted in favor of capital. The use value of a socialist party must therefore be measured by its ability to build organizing power, identify shared interests, and formulate and represent political goals among different sections of wage laborers.

The concept of the connective party thus means that Die Linke ought to view itself not only as the parliamentary representative of wage laborers, but also as an “organic” and active part of the trade-union movement itself. Contrary to Lenin’s concept of the party, this does not mean subordinating the trade unions to a party that holds a monopoly on political struggle, but rather an alliance of equals that encourages the development of independent initiatives within the trade unions.

In English, incase you were wondering. 🙂

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7. Joe - August 9, 2017
8. Alibaba - August 10, 2017

Here’s a very persuasive article on Climate Change which may already be known to you. It does make me think again. It also contains interesting observations about warming and social conflict.

“But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough. Over the past decades, our culture has gone apocalyptic with zombie movies and Mad Max dystopias, perhaps the collective result of displaced climate anxiety, and yet when it comes to contemplating real-world warming dangers, we suffer from an incredible failure of imagination.”

When Will the Planet Be Too Hot for Humans? Much, Much Sooner Than You Imagine.

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Alibaba - August 10, 2017
9. gendjinn - August 10, 2017

Democratic Socialists of America had their convention in Chicago this past weekend, celebrating a surge in membership to 25,000.

Closing out the ceremony with chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” is a pithily accurate summation of their policy positions.

Things are coming to a head here. The business cycle is about to bust but most in the US have not recovered from ’08. 60% of people cannot put their hands on $500 for an emergency. 1 in 6 face hunger. In the richest country in the history of the world.

The Nurses union is on the verge of breaking with the Democratic party – the CA speaker singlehandedly blocking universal healthcare for CA is the final straw. Sanders Dems won 650 out of 1140 CA State Delegates in Feb, but still the party installed its chosen chair in the state vote in May. A lobbyist for the healthcare industry who had just helped defeat cheaper federal pharmaceuticals legislation. And who promptly was youtubed telling progressives to “shup up or fuck off”.

Labor Day is coming up the first weekend in September and the week after that there is a People’s Convention congress talking shop. I’m expecting/hoping a third party is announced out of those because the appetite is there 45% Ind, 28% Dem, 25% GOP, 2% Other.

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GW - August 10, 2017

The creation of a third party in the US is hindered by the political system there, that was designed to ensure a duopoly of parties – but it’s doable and very necessary, as far as I can see. There’s no hope to be had from the Clinton/Obama Democratic machine.

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gendjinn - August 10, 2017

There are parallels between today and the birth of the Republican party. Hard, doable and necessary. The alternative is unpalatable.

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10. Starkadder - August 10, 2017

Speaking of unpalatable alternatives….52% of US voters polled would favour Trump suspending the 2020 election until only “eligible American citizens” could vote:

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/144283/trump-convince-republicans-suspend-american-democracy

From Trumpism to Bonapartism ?

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