StephenKMackSD's Blog

The Slow Mobilization Toward War With Putin

Stephen Blank first published this with the Atlantic Council, a NATO front organization, how much more obvious need it be that this is New Cold War propaganda? The list of supporters/members of this organization are instructive: Susan Rice, Richard Holbrooke, Eric K. Shinseki,  Anne-Marie Slaughter, Brent Scowcroft, and John Huntsman Jr. a collection of notorious war mongers, to speak plainly! Not to speak of former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Newsweek does it’s job as stenographer to the American National Security State Party Line: Putin as The New Stalin!

StephenKMackSD

Petros,
Mr. Roberts comes from the American Tradition of the Declaration of Independence, the  Constitution and The Bill of Rights, all documents in the Enlightenment Tradition. So he believes in the primacy of the shared destiny of the Commonwealth, as do I , the primacy of those documents, and that idea of a shared destiny has shaped American political thought and practice for over two hundred years.

The Free Market you pay homage to is an arrival of the watershed of the political rise of Thatcher/Reagan, and their attachment to the ideas of the Political Romantics masquerading as Economists: Hayek. von Mises,Friedman and the pamphleteer Ayn Rand. Their collective idea is that the values of this Mythical Free Market trump that American Tradition of the Commonwealth, and it’s political creature the res publica: the public thing. Nothing more antithetical to the ideas and practices of that public thing than the ideas of these Political Romantics, fronting for the Corporatism that engulfs us in the political present.
Those Marxists and Maoists that you hold up to contempt, disrespect? are true democrats because they submit to the will of the Greek people: They place a wager on an election, who but a democrat would place such a wager? Wolfgang Schäuble,  Mario Draghi, Christine Lagarde?
Regards,
StephenKMackSD
P.S. Adam Smith was the author of two important books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations: our ethical/political imperative is to attempt to integrate the insights of both into something coherent. See Amartya Sen’s introduction to the Penguin 250th Anniversary of Theory for the beginning of such an undertaking.

http://on.ft.com/1NyvAfF

If your going to play the role of political mandarin, as Mr. Wolf does in his essay, then what is called for is a complete honesty! Of course the tiresome but obligatory Anti-Left hysterics lead the way, Syriza, followed by a timely reminder of the shameful record of Germans as serial defaulter. Yet one of the primary bad actors in the Greek Crisis remains outside the ken of Mr. Wolf? And just off stage in this melodrama! Perhaps a reminder is in order?

Headline:

Greek Debt Crisis: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt

Sub-headline: 

Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country’s already bloated deficit.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-debt-crisis-how-goldman-sachs-helped-greece-to-mask-its-true-debt-a-676634.html

Political Observer

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fcb2fb16-1e5c-11e5-ab0f-6bb9974f25d0.html#axzz3eaoyTzeY

I have as much interest/concern in the Free Market as I do in Social Contract Theory! As an object of study both of these concepts/constructs have historical/philosophical interest. Both of these are, in my mind, situated in the realm of  theologies: the product  of revelation rather than empiricism. Not to speak of my obvious Left politics.

Before I got up this morning I read your reply to my comment. I immediately thought of these two essays published at Spiegel Online International. The first titled ‘Greece’s Referendum: The Price of Five Years of Cowardice’ by Christian Rickens:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/spiegel-editorial-on-the-greek-referendum-shock-a-1041236.html#ref=nl-international

The decision over the weekend by the Greek government to hold a referendum on Sunday on the reform measures being demanded by its creditors threatens — within just a few days — to destroy the illusions of five years of policies aimed at saving the euro. The easy way out is to cast blame on Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his government.

After months of negotiations and just before the expiration of the deadline in question, the Greek government has now decided that it is unable to take responsibility for a clear “yes” or “no” to the results of negotiations on its own. Why didn’t the Greeks says weeks ago that they wanted to put the negotiations up for a vote? That would have been the democratic way to go about it. In the very best case scenario, Tsipras’ about-face on the referendum is a populist move (assuming the decision was taken with any political calculation). In the worst case scenario, it is a cowardly one (if the head of government got cold feet about making such a difficult decision).

But “constant cowardice” is also the answer to another question — namely how the rest of the euro-zone members, Germany above all, could have allowed a situation to develop in which the erratic leaders of an economically insignificant country with a population of just 11 million people could bring the currency union to the verge of collapse?

Another case of the German historical amnesia, by which I mean this:

For a couple of minutes Friedman then offered a brief review of western financial history, highlighting the unprecedented nature of Europe’s single currency experiment, and offering a description of sovereign and local government defaults in the 20th century. Then, with an edge to his voice, Friedman pointed out that one of the great beneficiaries of debt forgiveness throughout the last century was Germany: on multiple occasions (1924, 1929, 1932 and 1953), the western allies had restructured German debt.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/927efd1e-9c32-11e4-b9f8-00144feabdc0.html

Another essay from Spiegel Online International under Opinion titled: We Are Living in the Anti-Europe by Dirk Kurbjuweit. A bit more measured, even low key, but still sharing in the German Amnesia, combined with the idealized Myth of Europe, not quite as conceived by Monnet, yet being infected with neoliberal rationalism, post Thatcher/Reagan.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/spiegel-commentary-on-the-greek-crisis-a-1041195.html#ref=nl-international

After the political anguish and recriminations come these paragraphs that indicate that the German Amnesia is not a permanent idee fixe: that misplaced idealism can give way to a completely necessary pragmatism, while the German bailouts of the 20th Century remain subtext?

It’s Time for the Alternatives

Things can’t stay the way they are. The admirable idea of a unified Continent cannot be allowed to be destroyed by the Greek crisis. And there are indeed alternatives to this politics of exhaustion, even if they do entail risk. Still, they would be better than what is happening right now.

One is the Grexit, which would see Greece leaving the euro zone and attempting to get by with its own currency. The second would be a debt haircut, meaning Greece would no longer be required to pay back a part of its debt. Both alternatives would trigger large tremors, but they would also provide the opportunity for a new beginning and an end of the crisis.

Those who still consider themselves to be Europeans at heart will speak out in favor of the second alternative, for stricter controls in exchange for generous aid and, ultimately, binding budget policies for all. That does come with a price tag, but also with the possibility that we still someday get the Europe that we were promised.

Regards,

StephenKMackSD

http://on.ft.com/1NrSCoG

This was just posted to my twitter feed.It is June 29,2015,almost 2:30 PM PDT, this essay dated the 27th. What could have possibly changed in the interim? This essay replete with the usual fear mongering and melodramatic breathlessness, Economist staples in it’s continuing series of propaganda monologues on the Greek resistance to the failed Austerity politics of the EU: not to speak of the German self-serving political/economic amnesia!  A crisis about to reach another denouement, in an endless series of same!
A series of questions occurs: will the Greek Army perform a Coup, in the name of Democracy? Is the referendum not a clear demonstration of Syriza’s commitment to democracy? to what George Papandreou lacked the political guts, will and/or courage to do? Enough of the Chatter of Crisis from the font of a failed neoliberal rationalism.  The issue will be decided by a vote of the Greek people, as it should have happened in 2010! If!
StephenKMackSD

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21650924-incoherent-proposal-greek-government-opens-new-chapter-crisis-close

With Ms. Nuland, and her foreign policy confederates Samantha Power and Susan Rice, we are destined for war with Russia. Or at the least an exacerbation of The New Cold War, with it’s proving ground in Ukraine. Forget the cost in human lives and suffering, as Neo-Conservatives are ethically and morally bankrupt purveyors of politically exploitable chaos, as a tool of imperial ambition. The Neo-Cons are still in thrall to the Cold War Triumphalism and it’s successor: a manufactured radical political nostalgia for the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan as the substance of ‘Policy’. Please, don’t forget that Ms. Nuland was chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, self-ascribed RussiaHand, and understudy to the professional American bully Richard Holbrooke. Call Ms. Nuland a worthy successor to these two paragons of diplomatic virtue!

Mr. Hudson does his best to disguise his career report on the redoubtable Ms. Nuland, as a political actor worthy of attention and respect, within a thoroughly colonized political establishment, with some comments on her personal life. A sample of the Nuland bathos is in order:

At her swearing-in ceremony, Nuland referenced Kagan’s essay in a heartfelt testament to their marriage. “He is my Mars, he is my Venus, he is my planet Earth,” she said.

If you are at all familiar with the Kagan family, and their unrelenting bellicosity and service to the American National Security State, Mr. Hudson’s essay seems to take on the dimension of a vulgar black comedy.

Political Observer

Ms. Tett knows both how to please her employers, and to appeal to the political paranoia of those virtuous managers of Capital, cowering under their desks, at the  argued approach of a rapacious Left Wing Hoard. Some fifty floors below those once coveted executive suites. Watch Billy Wilder’s The Apartment for the full particulars on the corporate mentality: Jack Lemon as the ambitious aspirant to that executive suite, and Fred MacMurray as the nervous gatekeeper to that executive suite. A brilliant Anti-Capitalist satire! Or for less entertaining observation on the history of the evolution of American Corporate life  see The Organization Man by William H. Whyte, and or The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson.

Ms. Tett exhibits her lack of knowledge of American politics, in pursuit of her fear mongering, and most importantly the part The New Deal has played in our collective endeavors. Sen. Warren is that rare political creature, a New Dealer in the age of the New Democrats . She came from humble beginnings and rose to fame as a result of her hard work and utter brilliance. Her’s is a Horatio Alger story for the 21st Century: she in not the Clintons, she embodies the spirit of  Eleanor Roosevelt  FDR and Ferdinand Pecora. Of the ‘I welcome your hatred’ tradition of American Politics, that Ms. Tett finds so completely uncongenial to her Conservative sensibility, or at least her attempt to inhabit it’s shopworn rhetoric.

Almost Marx

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bc2fbca2-1a86-11e5-8201-cbdb03d71480.html#axzz3eDAPx4ur

‘… Sir Chris campaigned for a change in the law on doctor-assisted dying, but not without identifying another brand of elbow-patched lefty he did not like:…’

Those ‘leftys’ haunt the lives and plans of all good Conservatives, from the time of Edmund Burke till the present.
Sir Chris became the front man/spokesmen/advocate for Cognita. His picture appears on it’s web site:

http://www.cognitaschools.com/
Is Cognita a Charter School? What can the profit motive allied to the education of children produce? Perhaps we in America have some things to share with our British friends:

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/04/12799/new-documents-show-how-federal-taxpayer-money-wasted-charter-schools

Headline:
Special Report: Feds Spent $3.3 Billion Fueling Charter Schools but No One Knows What It’s Really Bought
If that source is too ‘left’ for your readers how about this?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/08/08/how-will-charter-schools-deal-with-their-corruption-scandals/

Headline:

How will charter schools deal with their corruption scandals?

Or Diane Ravitch, a former proponent of Charter Schools:

http://dianeravitch.net/category/charter-schools/

Headline: What Happens When Charter Teachers Join a Union?

‘Presently, nearly 90% of charter schools are non-union. Less than 10% of charter tea hers belong to a union. This is not by chance or happenstance. Although the late Albert Shanker was a pioneer of the charter idea in 1988 (and turned against charters in 1993 because they had been taken o ER by privatizers), the charter movement today is firmly anti-union. Many of its major funders–like the Walton Family Foundation–are antagonistic to unions. Many of its strongest advocates believe that management must be free to hire and fire teachers at will and set compensation at will.’

The political/ethical rise of neoliberal rationalism, the notion that the ‘Free Market’ sets the standard for the whole of human endeavors, is in eclipse, if not precipitous decline. Yet the apologists for this civic nihilism, at The Economist, celebrate this pitchman as an exemplar of ‘Education Reform’ rather than just another example of a pernicious Corporatism.

Philosophical Apprentice

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21655043-outspoken-education-reformer-finally-rests-his-red-pen-warrior-against-mediocrity

Has The Financial Times  found the hero of it’s Capitalist Morality Play in Mr Theodorakis?

His qualifications for the position of The Neo-Liberal Knight of Faith:

‘Mr Theodorakis, a charismatic former television journalist, created To Potami — The River — from scratch ahead of January’s national elections and rode a wave of mainstream protests to secure 17 seats in parliament, the third largest in the 300-seat chamber., a charismatic former television journalist, created To Potami — The River — from scratch ahead of January’s national elections and rode a wave of mainstream protests to secure 17 seats in parliament, the third largest in the 300-seat chamber.’

Some quotations from Mr. Theodorakis, that surely establishes his status as front runner of the moment:

‘’Mr Tsipras has faced a vocal revolt from within Syriza since his new reform proposal — which includes steep increases in pension contributions and new taxes on corporate profits — was unveiled on Monday, but analysts remain unsure whether defections during a vote would be in the single-digits or in the dozens.’’

“Tsipras did not have the negotiation in mind. In his mind, he was always worried about his own party: what will I do in the negotiation that my party can say ‘this is the best thing you can do’?” he said.

“Time went by having his party satisfied with the negotiations, but in the process he lost his biggest allies in Europe,” he added. “The strength of Greece was always the allies Greece had in Europe.”

Read Yves Smith’s trenchant comment at Naked Capitalism :

Greece Bailout Deal Looks Even More Remote

A revelatory excerpt of Ms. Smith essay is demanded because she pulls no punches:

‘The question is whether the Troika is pushing Tsipras beyond where he can go out of a desire to break Syriza or was simply exhibiting their pathological faith in economic quackery, aka austerity, as well as a related belief that members of the Eurozone needed to follow the rules.’

Read Paul Craig Roberts comments on the Greek Pro-EU march here:

Greek People Demand Their Own Destruction — Paul Craig Roberts

A quote from Mr. Roberts:

‘The Greeks are so determined to be included in “Europe” that they are willing to be driven economically into the ground and to cease to exist as a sovereign state as the price of being in the EU. The idiots who participated in this “rally for Europe” have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the Greek government to soften the austerity that is being imposed by the One Percent on the Greek people.

Among Western people, the Greeks have experienced the heartlessness and greed of the One Percent more severely than any other Western people. Yet, the Greeks accept their mistreatment as the price of being European.

It is a wonder that Alexis Tsipras hasn’t resigned and damned the idiot population to hell.’

Also see this from InvestmentWatch under the headline:

‘ The company was originally funded from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s not-for-profit venture capital arm, and was used by government agencies.’

‘The group was founded in 2004 by Mr Thiel; its chief executive Alex Karp; Joe Lonsdale, now at Formation 8, the venture capital firm; Nathan Gettings and Stephen Cohen.’

Add this information, to the vote in Congress on TPA and the TPP and we see that the American Government and American Capital are joined in the project to turn the remnants of The Republic into a Corporatist State! And all this celebrated in this newspaper, whose allegiance is to the ascendent Neo-Liberal Dogma of the Free Market and it’s utterly corrupting practice of neoliberal rationalism. On this last point see Wendy Brown’s Undoing the Demos:

http://www.zonebooks.org/titles/BROW_UND.html

Almost Marx

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/926af768-1a4c-11e5-a130-2e7db721f996.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3dvQpOLT4