jump to navigation

What you want to say – 10th June 2020 June 10, 2020

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
trackback

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

Comments»

1. Tomboktu - June 10, 2020

When I pulled up my first ever harvest of spuds more than a decade ago, my teenage, urban (if not quite urbane) niece looked on in horror as I gave her mother a bag of the produce.

“You’re not going to eat them?”, she said.
“Yes”, I said.
“But they were in the ground “, she said.

Today she is in her 30s, has a 2-year-old and is looking forward to receiving a post-Covid gift of a large pot with John Innes No. 3 and a few dwarf pea plants so that she has a little food to cultivate with ‘help’ from the infant.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
Gearóid Clár - June 10, 2020

Great story 🙂

I used to work my grandfather’s allotment when I was studying and living with him. The council got another plot of land one year and opened a new set of allotments, so my father and my brother-in-law each got one for themselves. I ended up working nearly full-time on them all over the summer since “I didn’t have a job”.

We were cooking big pots of stew every other day!

Liked by 1 person

Reply
2. Starkadder - June 10, 2020

I was wondering if anyone here could put up any pieces on transgender rights from a specifically socialist perspective.

I don’t know much about this issue, and I want find out more so I can help trans people. (And yes, this was inspired by reading the obnoxious tweets by J.K. Rowling about this issue).

So far, this is the only piece I’ve been able to find, from Jacobin:

Jamie Gardner and Maddy Grace Webbon, “Why Bernie Sanders Is the Strongest Candidate for Transgender People” :

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/01/bernie-sanders-medicare-for-all-transgender-rights-health-care

Liked by 1 person

Reply
3. CL - June 11, 2020

” five female economists who deserve our attention. They are revolutionising their field by questioning the meaning of everything from ‘value’ and ‘debt’ to ‘growth’ and ‘GDP.’ Esther Duflo, Stephanie Kelton, Mariana Mazzucato, Carlota Perez and Kate Raworth are united in one thing: their amazement at the way economics has been defined and debated to date. Their incredulity is palpable.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/05/31/5-economists-redefining-everything–oh-yes-and-theyre-women/#3bc93113714a

“The national protests seeking an end to systemic discrimination against black Americans have given new fuel to a racial reckoning in economics, a discipline dominated by white men despite decades of efforts to open greater opportunity for women and nonwhite men…
.
A growing chorus of economists is seeking to dislodge the editor of a top academic publication, the University of Chicago economist Harald Uhlig, after he criticized the Black Lives Matter organization on Twitter and equated its members with “flat earthers” over their embrace of calls to defund police departments

Janet L. Yellen, the former Federal Reserve chair, said in an email on Wednesday that “the tweets and blog posts by Harald Uhlig are extremely troubling” and that “it would be appropriate for the University of Chicago, which is the publisher of the Journal of Political Economy, to review Uhlig’s performance and suitability to continue as editor.”

Like

Reply
4. CL - June 12, 2020

Website of the Seattle commune.
https://caphillauto.zone/life.html

Like

Reply
5. Alibaba - June 13, 2020

Irish Freedom Party Chair was asked to resign from an EU committee and other bodies over Covid-19 claims. Unfortunately, conspiracy theories and misinformation are rife.

‘The original interview has since been removed by You-Tube, but versions can still be found easily online and have clocked up hundreds of thousands of views. Ms Cahill has given a number of similar interviews since’

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-freedom-party-chair-asked-to-resign-from-eu-committee-over-covid-19-claims-1.4277698

Like

Reply
WorldbyStorm - June 13, 2020

Got to say I’m amazed at what she said;

“Lockdown and social distancing is not needed to stop the spread of the virus, she said. People who recover are then “immune for life” after 10 days and deaths and illnesses could have been prevented by extra vitamins, she claimed.
People with underlying health conditions, such as cystic fibrosis, could freely engage in society during the pandemic after spending a few weeks building up their immunity in this manner, she went on.”

All entirely incorrect. Take the immunity line, how could she possibly assert that? What material basis would she have for saying such a thing? It’s not even the alt-right outlet she said it on, bad enough as that is, the content is just disastrous.

Like

Reply
6. Paddy Healy - June 13, 2020

Further Down on my blog I have Reproduced 2 Papers from The Socialist Party Archive dealing with the Great 1920 General Strike and the War Of Independence and the Civil War.
I have done this to promote a deep discussion . I believe that a clear understanding of the role of the Labour and Trade union leaders in the 1917 to 1923 period is essential to understanding the role being played by the trade union leaders of to-day.

I will comment on these papers in the coming weeks-Paddy Healy

Liked by 1 person

Reply
7. Tomboktu - June 13, 2020

Two weeks ago, Dad rang me. Had I borrowed a book from him? One I bought him for Christmas a few years ago. “Ice”, by a female author. There’s something in it he’d like to re-read.

I didn’t remember getting it for him, but I did a search.
No joy.

I phoned him. Was it fiction or non-fiction?
Non-fiction. Blue cover.

Today he phoned me. He found it. “Frozen”, by Barry Lopez. (Even then, he got it wrong. I gave him “Horizon” by Barry Lopez, and last Christmas. But at least it is non-fiction and does have a blue cover.)

The plus: Now I know what to get him for his birthday next month: “Arctic Dreams” by Barry Lopez (or maybe “Antarctic Thoughts” by Barry Lopez).

Liked by 1 person

Reply
Liberius - June 14, 2020

Alternatively:

Ice is a novel by Anna Kavan, published in 1967. Ice was Kavan’s last work to be published before her death, the first to land her mainstream success, and remains her most well-known work. Generally regarded as genre-defying, it has been labelled as a work of science fiction, Nouveau roman, and slipstream fiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_%28Kavan_novel%29?wprov=sfla1

Liked by 2 people

Reply
8. Starkadder - June 15, 2020

Journalist Matt Taibbi has written a piece, “The American Press Is Destroying Itself”, that has provoked an awful lot of controversy on social media.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-news-media-is-destroying-itself

Taibbi has been attacked over the piece by commentators Jessica Valenti and David Klion, but he’s found a surprise defender.

Zaid Jilani emailed Noam Chomsky, and with the latter’s permission, showed that this was Chomsky’s comment on the Taibbi piece:


“Saw it. He’s very sharp.”

https://mobile.twitter.com/ZaidJilani/status/1272317139765071874

Like

Reply
WorldbyStorm - June 15, 2020

Ally that with Kenan Malik’s piece in the Observer and both point to the limitations of a political practice that extends as far as twitter and not much further. I can’t help but think that a lot of the dynamics described occur in part because they’re easy. It’s easy to say stuff off the cuff on twitter. It’s easy to move on.

Like

Reply
9. sonofstan - June 16, 2020

Marcus Rashford has shamed the government here into extending free school meals over the summer. What’s a little surprising is that people are surprised that a 22 year old footballer would have a better grasp of the public good than the PM.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
CL - June 16, 2020

“In reply to our Parliamentary Question the government have said they have no plans to extend the scheme over the summer months.”- Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD
https://www.labour.ie/act/extend-the-school-meals-programme-over-the-summer/

Like

Reply
10. Sputnick - June 23, 2020

Wikipedia Source :
Bellingcat (stylized as bell¿ngcat) is an investigative journalism website that specializes in fact- checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT).[1] It was founded by the British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014. Bellingcat publishes the findings of both professional and citizen journalist investigations into war zones, human rights abuses, and the criminal underworld. The site’s contributors also publish guides to their techniques, as well as case studies.[2] .

Wikifreaks 1. – https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/30/bellingcat-eliot-higgins-exposed- novichok-russian-spy-anatoliy-chepiga

June 2020 edition of Bellingcat on line publications include allegations made against the Irish Independent Newspaper of producing racist articles.

Wikifreaks – https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/podcasts/2020/06/11/bellingchat-episode-2-racism-today/

Like

Reply

Leave a comment