Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

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About stephenkmacksd

Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer. 'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.' https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary

gideon.rachman@ft.com takes the temperature of ‘The Washington foreign policy establishment’. Old Socialist comments

Posted on July 24, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

Headline: Revenge on the US is sweet for Vladimir Putin Sub-headline:  The Russian president draws satisfaction from embarrassing America Taking the temperature of ‘The Washington foreign policy establishment’  must have been  a  challenging, even a daunting task. Like Mr. Rachman, … Continue reading →

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On the decline of America’s Public Women & Men. Publius comments

Posted on July 23, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

No need to wonder or even agonize over the men leading our once Republic. Mueller, Comey, Brennan, Clapper are the dregs of now vanished Republic, swallowed whole by the imperatives of the National Security State. If you need a reminder … Continue reading →

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Anne-Marie Slaughter on the Trump/Putin Summit. Old Socialist comments

Posted on July 22, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

The concluding paragraph of Ms. Slaughter’s essay, in which she extemporizes on a theme of Martin Luther King, is worthy of full quotation: ‘It is incumbent upon those of us who see an arc of progress bending towards peace and … Continue reading →

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@EdwardGLuce & The Great Man. Political Observer comments

Posted on July 21, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

While babies in Vietnam are still being born with catastrophic birth defects from the effects of Agent Orange, decades after the end of the American Anti-Communists crusade or just call it mass slaughter, The Great Man is treated to lunch … Continue reading →

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@aaondmiller2 anguish over the ‘Jewish Nation-state Bill’. Old Socialist comments

Posted on July 19, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

Mr. Miller resembles American Jurisprudence: a bottomless well of self-serving mendacity in service to an utterly shameful defense of ‘Manifest Destiny’ i.e. Imperialism & Exceptionalism , genocide, Jim Crow and Segregation and its Wars of Empire, among a long list … Continue reading →

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@gilliantett advocates cyber vigilantism? Political Observer comments

Posted on July 18, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

Ms. Tett, in her essay, forgets, or simply leaves unmentioned, the use of Stuxnet by the US against Iran: Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm, first uncovered in 2010. Thought to have been in development since at least 2005, Stuxnet … Continue reading →

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At The Financial Times: @BEAMander ‏ on ‘Argentina on a knife edge’ & ‘Argentina learns to live with its inflation dragon’ and other questions. Old Socialist comments

Posted on July 14, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

Mr. Mander’s short essay arrived in my e mail this morning.: July 14, 2018. It does not appear, as such,  in the pages of the Financial Time. Its melodramatic title is ‘Argentina on a knife edge’! Impending  ‘crises’ , manufactured … Continue reading →

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David Frum on Trump: Episode DCCCIX. Old Socialist comments

Posted on July 12, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

David Frum,Wise Republican Elder & Midwife of Trump chatters while the American Empire is in its slow motion collapse!  NATO the tool of Empire, and the E.U., Monnet’s Neo-Liberalism before the fact, are the twin beneficiaries of this Neo-Con’s chatter. … Continue reading →

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janan.ganesh@ft.com warns against the ‘dead end’ of a ‘Left Turn’ for the New Democrats. Old Socialist comments

Posted on July 12, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

Headline: A left turn could be a dead end for the Democrats Sub-headline: It is misleading to draw comparisons with the state of European centre-left parties Unsurprisingly Mr. Ganesh takes the Party Line of the Clinton coterie, on the ‘Left’ represented by … Continue reading →

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Our Man from Opus Dei on the Kavanaugh nomination: not celebration but guarded optimism. Political Observer comments

Posted on July 11, 2018 by stephenkmacksd

Mr. Douthat expresses caution in regards to the Kavanaugh nomination, as the starting point of the overturning of Roe and Casey. In sum, Kavanaugh allied with Roberts will be cautious in its rulings. The Citizens United decision is exemplary of … Continue reading →

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