From outside Chicago - think it may be time to skip town very soon Charlie Sent from my iPhone
> On Jun 1, 2020, at 4:42 PM, Kurtz, Steven <sjku...@buffalo.edu> wrote: > > Brian, I have long admired your optimism and fighting spirit, but I just > find it difficult to think that structural change is coming soon. Regarding > the George Floyd case, we haven't even been able to get the accessories to > murder charged and the murderer is miles from conviction. Given the autopsy > discrepancies, I think we can assume the police shenanigans have already > begun. But putting the the institutional racism of the US legal system aside > (which won't change in our life time), and turning to the question of > electoral politics, I do agree with you that we need to build a voting bloc > that will put Trump out of office. And I believe this can happen. The > alliance is being formed, and we have a good shot at getting Trump out. I > share your optimism here. However, I have to point out that Biden is > literally and explicitly running on a no structural change platform. (Sanders > was the change candidate, and he's done.) The democratic congress supports > Biden's reform approach. Trump is wo > rse, but the Dems are not much better on climate change--they like to give it > lip service and put band-aids where they can, but that is about it. They have > already given massive corporate welfare to the extraction industries (they > are not trying to eliminate them, nor are they proposing funding for > sustainable energy). They agree with Biden that answer to the healthcare > crisis is to tweak Obamacare. I could go on, but for brevity's sake will not. > > > But here is what really gets me: The US is in the middle of a great > depression and yet the stock market is fine and healthy. The Dow is up at > 25,745 as I write this. Not record territory, but close. I think there are > two reasons for this. The first is all the tax payer funded corporate bailout > money coming their way which allows them to keep all the stock buy backs in > place, thus raising dividends and/or share price. Or conversely, protecting > them from having to reissue buy back shares to stay afloat while waiting out > the pandemic. This kind of bail out makes corporate exchange a risk free > affair. The second is they see all the independent businesses failing. This > is going to open some new market share. We know what that means for the Davos > crowd--Growth is still possible! You and I have discussed at length what will > happen if the one percent still sees the possibility for growth. I fear that > neoliberalism is going to be around for a while longer, and the Biden > administration and dem > ocratic congress will fully support it. It is possible that the glowing > future of corporate hegemony that the stock market currently reflects may be > a pipe dream, and I hope that is true. If so, maybe there is a chance > something new could emerge. > > > > > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
