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Letters from our readers

On “Hurricane leaves devastation in its wake

 

 

I keep hearing the announcers on NPR talk about how the Stock Exchange is back up and running, thanks to generators and a can-do attitude. Meanwhile, a hospital like Bellview is closing days after the storm due to lack of power. I cannot think of a better analogy for how Wall Street and capitalism suck the very life out of the rest of society.

 

Christie S
Washington, USA
1 November 2012

On “A socialist policy for the victims of Hurricane Sandy

 

Money bailouts yes, flood bailouts no! 24-hour news coverage of the hurricane has revealed that plenty of people in working class areas in Staten Island and elsewhere have received no help whatsoever despite promises that help is being given in a systematic way by various officials. Many of these victims have accurately identified that government doesn’t care about them.

Romney spending millions on ads is collecting soup from working class people in Ohio to send over in trucks? One would think he would take advantage of the situation, the free PR he could get by investing some of his own millions and maybe rounding up fellow Mormons and some unemployed people he could pay who’d no doubt be glad to help bail out people’s homes and help the elderly who are trapped in rapidly declining conditions. I think it doesn’t even occur to him that this would be a good PR stunt, a real bargain, money well spent, as he is so adverse to the notion of doing anything that might aid working class people.

Obama of course knows he has to say all the right things and seizes on that opportunity.

 

Veronica
New York, New York
2 November 2012

On “Storm’s damage to aging infrastructure leaves New York City paralyzed

 

The American people have asked the parasites of Wall Street, whose continued profits have been the reason for the decaying infrastructure of the city, to evacuate. This will likely be held against them in a similar vein in the near future. That storm will make Sandy look like a tempest in a tea-cup.

 

Thushara
31 October 2012

On “Hurricane Sandy and capitalist ‘free enterprise’

 

Dear comrades,

This is correct as far as it goes. However, parallels with TEPCO etc. must be drawn when exposing the dangers to humanity when confronting “natural” disasters and production for profit.

 

John U
1 November 2012

On “American democracy and the ‘disposition matrix’

 

Watching the last presidential debate, Michael Moore tweeted “All O has to say is, ‘I am a baaaadass President! Is there ANYONE watching tonight who doesn’t believe I’m gonna hunt those mf-ers down?!” (See: http://twitter.com/mmflint)

Completely depraved.

Lloyd G
South Dakota, USA
31 October 2012

On “Australian Labor government ‘excises’ entire country to bar refugees

 

Patrick,

Thank you for your article and critical analysis of the duplicity and political cowardice of the current Australian Government and so called opposition parties with regards to refugee asylum seekers.

It appears that the current leaders have far exceeded the gutter in their race to the bottom, and are now well and truly within Dante’s Inferno.

If the working classes could somehow be informed of the current brutality of this government, these hellholes of internment camps would be shut down tomorrow.

Yours fraternally,

James S
NSW, Australia
31 October 2012

On “The World Series and militarism

 

Editor,

 

Excellent piece, and of course you could have taken this much further. (The American flag on every NBA backboard comes to mind.)

 

Several years back WSWS had a fine review of the film Master and Commander, and only your reviewer caught a key difference in the film from the book: that when a crew member is washed overboard, in the book the boat and crew, despite being hotly pursued, went back to retrieve their friend. In the film, the boat kept going. The message: the state before friendship, before any personal loyalties.

 

During one baseball game not to long ago, during the abysmal seventh-inning “God Bless America” (stretch indeed), the director really earned his dinner by focusing on a small boy asleep on his father’s shoulder, the boy’s little hand clutching a tiny American flag. The message: he may let go of his father, but he’ll never let go of the American flag.

 

This is beyond simple propaganda. This is brainwashing of a sort that simply leaves one speechless and open-mouthed at what has become of our country.

 

CW
31 October 2012

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