On “The war in Libya and the crisis of the European Union”

 

 

There may be another aspect to this cockroach war (see Wall Street Journal article).

 

Apparently Libya’s government was the target of a Wall Street scam cooked up in the backroom of Goldman-Sachs whereby the “sovereign wealth fund” of Libya was bilked of over a billion dollars and then the banksters had the “audacity to hope” that Libya would throw in another $3.7 billion in order to buy “preferred shares” in the company that had just lost 98 percent of their investment...

 

It’s a fascinating read and reminiscent of the sort of business dealings one would expect of a mafia/CIA front.

 

Keep up the good work, guys.

 

Bob
31 May 2011

On “New York City budget will decimate libraries”

 

It’s probably worth reminding New Yorkers that Michael Bloomberg is number ten on the current Forbes 400 list. His wealth is listed there as $18 billion.

 

The $100 million cut to the library system is less than 0.6 percent of his personal wealth.

 

“There is no money”? Bah! We know where the money is.

 

Charles H
Texas, USA
27 May 2011

On “White House unveils corporate deregulation scheme”

 

Great article on Obama and his utter contempt for corporate regulation of any kind. Only the form of corporate [self] regulation will survive the gutting of OSHA, of EPA laws, and of the public’s need to know of practices that cut our lives short; corporations will continue to regulate themselves by having industry lobbyists write de-regulation legislation and then getting it rubber-stamped by Congress. Obama might as well use a rubber pen to sign this kind of shit into law.

 

But the best thing about your article—I think—is to remind us of the ultimate goal of the current de-regulation scheme. It’s to repeal the last of the reforms enacted by the New Deal and the Great Society.

 

Obama is certainly splitting hairs when it comes to gutting the Great Society regulations passed by the Johnson Administration. I’m just wondering if Obama will also want to reduce or outright eliminate the civil rights legislation that was enacted at the same time. There is still much good to be said about LBJ’s parliamentary skills as well as of the more left of center Congress of the time. The former is about the only good thing LBJ can be remembered for. (Too bad nearly all the rest in Congress were lawyers.)

 

Pelle L
Missouri, USA
28 May 2011

On “India: Rightwinger Banerjee becomes West Bengal’s new chief minister”

 

Overnight, Mamata Bannerjee has become the affectionate “Didi” (elder sister) to the mainstream media. Unfortunate that in the excitement created, people are not seeing through the strategy to bring in harsh economic policies. The contradictions in re-inviting the Tatas to establish an auto plant in Singrur are too clear to ignore. Elsewhere in the Tamil Nadu state, the entry of the corrupt Jaya Lalithaa in the place of another corrupt CM, Karunanidhi, is neither a happy nor sad event. That is hardly any choice.

 

Prabhakar
India
27 May 2011

 

On the Tea Party

 

These Youtube pieces (here and here) verify what the WSWS has said about the Tea Party “movement”.

 

The first is a trailer for an online (or DVD) movie about “astro-turfing”, which is the manufacture of activist groups by corporations, designed to influence public opinion and disrupt public discourse of reforms, laws, policies and the thinking of the working class.

The second link is an interview with the filmmaker, Taki Oldham, an Australian, who discusses the things he discovered in the making of the film, and some of the sources that he used.

 

Kate
Minnesota, USA
27 May 2011