[Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #409 notes

Sun Jan 20 02:17:42 UTC 2019

News from Neptune #409
A "Coup Coup" edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63oFXqxqX2A

A list of references to items mentioned on the show and related notes.

Peter T. Tomaras on "Military service a positive experience"

http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-the-editor/2019-01-18/letter-the-editor-military-service-positive-experience.html

Related:

Not only is "the gig economy" neologism really a scam of low-pay work 
(forcing poor people to take multiple such jobs to make ends meet) as the 
show explains, but the nature of the work are also a part of the problem.

You can see the ugly nature of so much work show up in other areas of the 
economy as well -- the recent article in The Guardian describes why "people 
don't want to work in abattoirs any more":

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/19/christmas-crisis-kill-dinner-work-abattoir-industry-psychological-physical-damage 
-- "People don’t want to work in abattoirs any more. The industry is linked 
to psychological and physical damage"

> A report in the trade magazine Farmers Weekly has revealed that staff 
> shortages at slaughterhouses are threatening Christmas sales. Some
> 10,000 positions are unfilled at major abattoirs, meaning supermarkets
> will “seriously struggle” to fulfil their seasonal orders. Of course
> some of that shortfall is because of Brexit; crucially, however, the
> report explains that for most potential applicants, the industry’s low
> pay is not the problem but that “people simply do not want to do this
> work any more”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_4h5A5z_A -- "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa 
the Vegetarian" (S07E05), the scene of a fictional meat lobby-sponsored 
propaganda film played in schools titled "Meat and You: Partners in 
Freedom" has a comedic view of why people don't want abattoir work with 
Troy McClure the omnipresent narrator of Simpsons' educational films, and 
Jimmy, a young boy:

https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-simpsons&episode=s07e05

> Jimmy: I'm curious as to how meat gets from the ranch to my stomach.
> 
> Troy: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Jimmy. You just asked a mouthful. It 
> all starts here in the high-density feedlot. Then when the cattle are 
> just right -- Mmm! -- it's time for them to "graduate" from Bovine 
> University. Come on, Jimmy. Let's take a peek at the killing floor.
> 
> [Jimmy is visibly startled.]
> 
> Troy: Don't let the name throw you, Jimmy. It's not really a floor. It's
> more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can
> be collected and exported.
> 
> [Troy and Jimmy enter the killing floor where we see only the side of 
> the building but hear cattle being slaughtered and chopped up. As Troy 
> and Jimmy exit the building Jimmy shudders in fear.]
> 
> Troy: Getting hungry, Jimmy?
> 
> Jimmy: Uh, Mr. McClure, I have a crazy friend who says it's wrong to
> eat meat. Is he crazy?
> 
> Troy: No, just ignorant. You see, your crazy friend never heard of the 
> food chain. [a slide showing all sorts of creatures each with an arrow 
> pointing to the human in the center] Just ask this scientician.
> 
> Unnamed man in lab coat at microscope: Uh
> 
> Troy: He'll tell you that in nature one creature invariably eats
> another to survive. Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the
> chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about.
> 
> Jimmy: Wow, Mr. McClure! I was a Grade-A moron to ever question eating 
> meat.
> 
> Troy: Yes, you were, Jimmy. Yes, you were.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOf_DPchpoE -- Rick Sanchez's "report card 
on the American worker" includes the following:

> Net worth of Americans from 2007 to 2019 (during the so-called
> "recovery") -- White middle class families have seen their net worth go
> down by 19%; African American families' net worth fell 40%; Hispanic
> families' net worth fell by 46%
> 
> The US created $26 trillion dollars [not to:] build roads, build 
> schools, bail out Americans who were cheated in sub-prime loans,
> forgive student debt, [nor to] create a healthcare structure for
> uninsured Americans. It was used to bail out the banks.
> 
> Right now about a 1/3rd of American workers make less than $12/hour.
> 
> American productivity since 1973 has risen: Productivity has gone up by 
> 77% and the hourly wage has gone up by 12%.
> 
> If a federal minimum wage were tracked to productivity the federal 
> minimum wage would be $20/hr.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-to-re-introduce-15-minimum-wage-bill-in-first-week-of-new-congress 
-- Bernie Sanders, one of the most popular politicians in the US today, is 
introducing a bill that "would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 
2024 and would index it to median wage growth thereafter".

Bret Stephens on "The Rudderless West"

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/brexit-western-powers.html

Yves Engler on "Is Canada's 'Left' Marching To The Beat of America's 
Imperial Drum?"

Transcripts for both parts: 
https://therealnews.com/series/is-canadas-left-marching-to-the-beat-of-americas-imperial-drum

Video part 1 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nymp9uefUxA
Video part 2 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6IcRIycmpE

Shir Hever and David Sheen on "Will Coming Israeli Elections Change Anything?"

Transcripts of both parts: 
https://therealnews.com/series/will-coming-israeli-elections-change-anything

Video part 1 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFQ2LXVYzB4
Video part 2 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvVk6OiFr30

Leo Panitch on "UK Brexit Vote Reflects a Deep Crisis in Capitalism"

Transcripts of both parts: 
https://therealnews.com/series/uk-brexit-vote-reflects-a-deep-crisis-in-capitalism

Video part 1 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FP-rwrlv_0
Video part 2 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J_2c24JzL0

Regarding discussion of Marx's reflections on constitutionalism

Ben Gliniecki on "Law and Marxism: the state and the constitution"

https://www.marxist.com/law-and-marxism-the-state-and-the-constitution.htm

> For Marxists there is nothing mysterious about the state: it is a weapon
> of the ruling class to be used in the class struggle. Constitutional
> laws appear to regulate and limit the power of the state – does that
> mean they should be supported by Marxists? This would be a
> misunderstanding. Constitutional laws are a conquest of the bourgeois
> revolutions against the old feudal order, and they flow, in content and
> form, directly from a system based on commodity production. We have no
> illusions that constitutional safeguards can help the working class win
> its struggle against the bourgeoisie. It also means that, as well as the
> state being entirely different under socialism, constitutional law, and
> law in general, would look very different as well.

Dean Baker and Jason Hickel debate Whether the Green New Deal should be 
pro-growth or anti-growth

Baker starts: 
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/saving-the-environment-is-degrowthing-the-answer

Hickel replies: 
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/stability-without-growth-keynes-in-an-age-of-climate-breakdown

Robert Pollin on "De-growth vs a Green New Deal" (full article)

https://newleftreview.org/II/112/robert-pollin-de-growth-vs-a-green-new-deal

Stan Cox on "That Green Growth at the Heart of the Green New Deal? It’s 
Malignant"

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/17/that-green-growth-at-the-heart-of-the-green-new-deal-its-malignant/

Andrew Stewart on "Sorry Democrats, the Green Party Came Up With the Green 
New Deal!"

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/29/sorry-democrats-the-green-party-came-up-with-the-green-new-deal/

and

http://www.gp.org/sorry_democrats where the author's name is spelled 
"Andrew Steward"

Andrew Stewart on "The Green New Deal Must be Centered on African American 
and Indigenous Workers to Differentiate Itself From the Democratic Party"

Part 1 of 3: 
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/15/the-green-new-deal-must-be-centered-on-african-american-and-indigenous-workers-to-differentiate-itself-from-the-democratic-party/

Part 2 of 3: 
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/16/the-green-new-deal-must-be-centered-on-african-american-and-indigenous-workers-to-differentiate-itself-from-the-democratic-party-part-two/

Part 3 of 3: 
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/17/the-green-new-deal-must-be-centered-on-african-american-and-indigenous-workers-to-differentiate-itself-from-the-democratic-party-part-three/

Dean Baker's blog "Beat the Press"

http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/

Eric Blanc on "Billionaires vs. LA Schools"

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/la-teachers-strike-charters-privatization

Some of the New York Times articles on the ongoing Los Angeles Teachers' Strike

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/style/la-school-strike-latino.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/california-today-la-teachers-union-leader-strike.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/us/la-teacher-strike-lausd.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/california-today-los-angeles-teachers-strike.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/us/california-today-austin-beutner-la-teacher-strike.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opinion/letters/los-angeles-teachers-strike-prop-13.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/lausd-strike-schools.html
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/01/17/us/ap-us-los-angeles-teachers-strike.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/california-teachers-strike.html

Glenn Sachs articles on CounterPunch about the ongoing LA Teachers' Strike

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/06/a-teacher-explains-why-the-janus-ruling-is-bad-news-for-schools-students/ 
-- on how Janus v. AFSCME is aimed at Teachers' union

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/08/la-teachers-strike-dispatch-1/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/09/obamas-education-secretary-arne-duncan-slams-la-teachers-for-strike/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/14/la-teachers-strike-the-country-is-watching/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/15/on-the-picket-lines-los-angeles-teachers-go-on-strike-for-first-time-in-30-years/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/16/la-teachers-strike-when-just-one-man-says-no/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/17/la-teachers-strike-black-smoke-pouring-out-of-lausd-headquarters/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/18/la-teachers-strike-student-voices-of-the-los-angeles-education-revolt/

Moderate Rebels episode 33: "Revolt of the haves: Venezuela's US-backed 
opposition and economic sabotage w/ Steve Ellner"

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/moderaterebels/e33_steve_ellner_venezuela.mp3

Moderate Rebels RSS feed: https://moderaterebels.libsyn.com/rss
Moderate Rebels videos: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNiXhsI4QtmQaeICpT-k7BQ/videos

-J