[Peace] Interesting and important interviews & comments from Jimmy Dore: interviews with Dylan Ratigan & Jane McAlevey, and analyzing Noam Chomsky's electoral advice & AOC's rebuttal

Wed Apr 22 17:29:08 UTC 2020

David, you’re absolutely correct. 

This is why we must analyze and not follow blindly what “experts,” or those we respect suggest we do. 

It’s one thing to follow a suggestion related to a “good restaurant, book or film,” as everyone has their own opinion, or perspective, and I shouldn’t begrudge or criticize the person who suggested it if I’m displeased, as it was my choice. 

However, when a leader makes suggestions and we follow blindly, without analyzing, or delving beneath the surface that is another situation altogether.

This is why I appreciate the information, the links and summaries provided by J.B. with discussion and analysis from others in relation to that which holds so many lives in the balance. 

> On Apr 22, 2020, at 09:48, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Karen, 
> 
> I wasn't trying to make excuses for Chomsky, but instead point out that he is not correct 100 % of the time. I have disagreed with statements / opinions in the past from Chomsky. 
> He can be and is wrong occasionally.
> 
> David J.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karen Aram [mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 10:05 AM
> To: David Johnson
> Cc: J.B. Nicholson; Peace Discuss; Peace
> Subject: Re: [Peace] Interesting and important interviews & comments from Jimmy Dore: interviews with Dylan Ratigan & Jane McAlevey, and analyzing Noam Chomsky's electoral advice & AOC's rebuttal
> 
> Sorry, thats no excuse for someone who influences millions. If I’m wrong, who cares, as no one listens to me. But when someone of Chomsky’s stature is wrong, is has monumental consequences.
> 
> 
>> On Apr 22, 2020, at 07:58, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:
>> 
>> With Chomsky's latest statement that we need to vote for Joe Biden, is proof that nobody is correct 100% of the time. He is only human and hence flawed like the rest of us.
>> 
>> David J.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Peace [mailto:peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Karen Aram via Peace
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 9:28 AM
>> To: J.B. Nicholson
>> Cc: Peace Discuss; Peace
>> Subject: Re: [Peace] Interesting and important interviews & comments from Jimmy Dore: interviews with Dylan Ratigan & Jane McAlevey, and analyzing Noam Chomsky's electoral advice & AOC's rebuttal
>> 
>> 
>> Jeff, great job of providing us with the information necessary to delve beneath the surface.
>> 
>> Jimmy Dore is doing a great job of doing just that. I liked his interview with Dylan Rattigan explaining what the oil crisis is, to those of us weak on the details.
>> 
>> Though I generally don’t like focusing on the individual, Jimmy does it in order to uncloak the duplicity of AOC,  which is necessary for those who think AOC or others who have risen to media attention, saying all the right things, are going to save us, or challenge authority, just because they grand stand and tell us so. 
>> 
>> My only problem with his latest was he targeted Pelosi as the all encompassing evil. She is, but the assumption that some may take from this is “ if we just remove Pelosi, all will be well.”  No it won’t change a thing, as she is just the front man for so many others, owned by corporate capitalism. What we need is system change, and if any one dares challenge it within the system, they will be shut down, not promoted as “celebrities of the left.”
>> 
>> I didn’t see the interview with Jane McAlevey, or rebuttal in relation to Chomsky’s comments on the election. However, in looking at those promoting Janes’ books, most are mainstream Democrats rarely challenging the system,  other than Naomi Klein, who does so now with nuance and caution. 
>> 
>> As to Chomsky on the upcoming election. I read the interview done by Jacobin. Chomsky as usual defines the problem as capitalism. Then he recommends Biden. How can the “greatest intellectual alive today" after analyzing the problem, then suggest a solution that supports the problem. 
>> 
>> It maybe hubris on my part to challenge “the greatest intellectual alive today," someone who eight years ago, reading his many books, enlightened me to the many crimes the USG committed over the years, as well as who and why. Based upon everything I learned from him, I have to ask why? I agree global warming and nuclear war are real and serious impending threats to the very existence of mankind, but doing the same thing over and over again, supporting the same people as previous, the same who gave rise to a Trump, representing our system of corruption and decay, is insanity. 
>> 
>> Chomsky has never supported a third Party, says little of people in the streets, mass movements or challenging our government, whoever the administration, so I am a bit bewildered by his reluctance to challenge the system as is necessary.  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 22, 2020, at 06:31, David Johnson via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Jeff,
>>> 
>>> Thanks for composing these news digests. They are very helpful references.
>>> 
>>> David J.
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Peace [mailto:peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of J.B. Nicholson via Peace
>>> Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 7:51 PM
>>> To: Peace Discuss; Peace
>>> Subject: [Peace] Interesting and important interviews & comments from Jimmy Dore: interviews with Dylan Ratigan & Jane McAlevey, and analyzing Noam Chomsky's electoral advice & AOC's rebuttal
>>> 
>>> Jimmy Dore is still giving us the interviews you're not likely to catch elsewhere. On 
>>> today's live show he spoke with author Jane McAlevey author of "A Collective Bargain: 
>>> Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy".
>>> 
>>> https://janemcalevey.com/book/a-collective-bargain-unions-organizing-and-the-fight-for-democracy/
>>> 
>>> McAlevey provides specific actionable advice on how to form a union, which unions are 
>>> most likely to be amenable to work with you (nurses & teachers' unions), and she 
>>> clearly calls for strikes among the workers we now see are indispensable (among them: 
>>> grocery store clerks & delivery drivers not Wall St. traders despite what the 
>>> establishment media tells you). My main objection is McAlevey's fleeting references 
>>> to the sex of the amenable workers and Trump Derangement Syndrome[2]. But fortunately 
>>> Dore is neither put off by it nor mired in that side issue in the interview.
>>> 
>>> McAlevey, in response to what union busters aim to accomplish, quoted a union buster 
>>> which I found referenced below:
>>> 
>>> https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-are-unions-20140227-story.html#axzz2uYgJ10ss
>>> https://archive.md/C9aG2
>>> 
>>>> Over the years, employers have developed an exquisite arsenal against union
>>>> organizing. For a succinct description of how the war is waged, Soltas needs to
>>>> examine “Confessions of a Union Buster,”[1] the heartfelt memoir Martin Jay Levitt
>>>> published in 1993.
>>>> 
>>>> “I come from a very dirty business,” Levitt told a carpenters union audience
>>>> (after his conversion). As he described it, “the enemy was the collective spirit.
>>>> I got hold of that spirit while it was still a seedling; I poisoned it, choked it,
>>>> bludgeoned it if I had to, anything to be sure it would never blossom into a
>>>> united work force, the dreaded foe of any corporate tyrant."
>>> [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-0gxca-VxM
>>> 
>>> [2] Dore is much more pointed in his criticism of 'any blue will do' (a slogan 
>>> advocating that one should support any Democrat no matter who they are, what their 
>>> history is, or what they say they'll support/oppose) in his take on Noam Chomsky's 
>>> endorsement of Joe Biden. You can also find Chomsky's advice to vote for Biden on 
>>> recent episodes of Democracy Now and in an interview with Medhi Hasan (which is what 
>>> Dore focuses on).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> And Dore & co. are still some the very few commentators with a proper sense of 
>>> priority on how much the Democrats are not working for you. The so-called 
>>> "progressive" Democrats -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, 
>>> and the rest of "the squad", as well as Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren have all 
>>> been described as progressive -- are all useless to you because of how all but a 
>>> handful of Congresspeople voted for the CARES Act (everyone voting in the Senate went 
>>> along with it and those few objectors in the House sounded like they were all men, 
>>> judging by the voice vote given).
>>> 
>>> Despite that, AOC continues to lecture and gaslight us about our collective needs and 
>>> not clearly and plainly say that she voted against CARES (because she actually voted 
>>> for CARES and she knows it), didn't put in any effort to call for a recorded vote 
>>> (and for a lame reason[3] that is no excuse to not call for a recorded vote), and 
>>> didn't challenge her leadership on a recorded vote or the bill. The Democrats are 
>>> fully behind our collective immiseration. See 
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwiP6JT3mQ for Dore's response and this is filled 
>>> with questions the establishment-friendly media aren't asking. For all of her 
>>> time-consuming bluster, AOC has not demonstrated the spine to appear on Jimmy Dore's 
>>> show despite having an open invitation to appear so he can put these questions 
>>> directly to her.
>>> 
>>> See Dore's interview with Dylan Ratigan in 
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1oERncbzPY on how anyone living on a stock-based 
>>> retirement plan or pension is in fiscal trouble too.
>>> 
>>> [3] Rep. Barbara Lee stood out as the sole House vote against the authorization to 
>>> grant the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. She lost that fight. But she can forever turn 
>>> to her constituents and argue that she made the correct call when it counted. AOC 
>>> can't do that. We've heard the voice vote (which sounded like a small group of all 
>>> men) and AOC has been cagey about describing her own choices (she never clearly said 
>>> she voted against CARES, won't given Rep. Thomas Massey credit where credit is due 
>>> for objecting to the point where the House had to have a voice vote, and erroneously 
>>> claims that it would have "needlessly endanger[ed] folks" to have objected without 43 
>>> other Reps. joining her). These are reasons for her constituents to vote AOC out.
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> 