NM's blog

By Richard Seymour Patreon , 29 January 2026 You want to break the regime's ICE offensive? Get [Stephen] Miller. "This, briefly, is a lifelong political obsession for Miller. He is now back in the White House with general authority extending well beyond Homeland Security. He lobbied for Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act and for a massive funding surge for ICE. The use of the Alien Enemies Act, declaring migration an invasion, has long been a strategic goal of white supremacists. And for Miller it comes with the crucial benefit that, for the right, this gives the executive practically unlimited power to deal with the crisis. Miller has claimed that Trump has ‘plenary authority’, meaning his authority is practically limitless. The idea of using paramilitary force, organised as anti-immigration enforcement, to attack the left, comes from Miller. Even the propaganda themes, blitzing the press with endless garish examples of immigrant venality and criminality, and the fascinati...

“At a cost of over  11,000 dead fighters  and uncounted civilians, the predominantly Kurdish SDF defeated ISIS and prevented its re-emergence as a worldwide threat. Yet despite this incalculable service, the SDF and its homeland in northeast Syria came under assault by former ISIS fighters, effectively abandoned by its US ally . “A decade after  partnering with the US  and following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Kurdish sacrifices in hopes of regional self-determination feel painfully distant.”

The classic mindset of the “neoliberalised left.” Inside the United States, the crisis is reduced to a few violations, a few instances of lawbreaking, or a handful of limited reforms—as if making the process “legal” automatically means power itself has been restrained. The same intellectual currents that, at home, strike an anti-corruption moral pose and limit the debate to legal procedures, show up internationally with vague “anti-imperialist” slogans—without any serious analysis of capital, state power, and global hegemony. The truth that should be kept in full view is deliberately removed: capital is not just markets and companies. Capital is organised political power. Hegemony m eans the ability to set the world’s agenda—to decide what counts as “legitimate,” what is “illegal”,  what is “security,” what is “terrorism,” and who has the right to use force and who does not. The logic of rebuilding empire

Donald Trump are an extension of a long US tradition of interference in the region . Related Rogue State by William Blum on the CIA website

Notice that there is not a single mention of the political economy of refugee. “Fleeing for their lives” and “be returned to a place of danger.” Economic and environmental factors are completely ignored. Thus, the regression is not only in the 'traditional' rights , which have been enshrined in conventions since the end of WWII, but in leaving out new structural factors that compel people to flee one country and seek a better life in another out of the discussion.  The ruling classes in rich nation-states want to maintain their interests, mainly electoral interests, and ‘stability’ by containing the growth of ethno-nationalist movements , adopting some of their demands, and some cases even defections of politicians from the mainstream parties to far right ones.

I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not nor ever have been in favour of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office. — Abraham Lincoln  in an 1858 speech

Western-centric, but interesting.

Karl Marx in America – a book review by Robin Blackburn

The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles. — Eugene V. Debs

Separating sociology from political economy. Surprised to see Hanieh not mentioning 'class' even once. Oil militarism and the global order

Malcom X's warning to Americans

The attempt to account for America’s anti-socialist exception has sustained a thriving academic cottage industry among historians, sociologists and political scientists over many decades. As long ago as 1906, the German economist and sociologist Werner Sombart was asking: “Why is there no socialism in the US?”  The answer, he thought, lay in the success of capitalism and the extent to which American workers identified as a result with the prevailing social and economic settlement. “On the reefs of roast beef and apple pie,” Sombart wrote, “socialistic utopias of every sort are sent to their doom.”  There were other factors at work too, Sombart argued. America had no feudal past, which meant that workers there felt the political system was largely responsive to their needs, in a way that their European counterparts, who’d had to fight to achieve the franchise, did not. Greater social mobility led most Americans to value self-improvement over collective action, while the open fr...

Realpolitik and selective accountability.  “The UAE is a strategic partner of the West. It is a buyer of arms, a major collaborator with Israel’s genocidal regime, a conduit for intelligence, and a financial hub. It has hosted US military bases, participated in counterterrorism operations, and invested heavily in Western economies. In short, it is too useful to punish.” Counterrevolution, gold and global impunity

“Trump spoke next. He arrived twenty minutes late and nobody clapped. He said it was the most silent room he had ever been in. He told them to applaud. No one applauded. Those senior officers sat and listened to the silence. No one applauded. “ No authoritarian right winger insults all their senior generals and admirals together . Pinochet did not do it. Putin doesn’t do it. Modi would not dream of it. Mussolini did not do it. Netanyahu hasn’t done it. Hitler never did it. It’s mad.”

Chen Eason The United States has spent over $2.3 trillion on the war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2022. What's achievement for US and Europe? Woody Grego Chen Eason  You forgot to mention they also killed 250,000 people and replaced the Taliban with the Taliban. Ned Ma Woody Grego  they did not replace the Taliban with Taliban. They were defeated and ran away. Taliban took over Kabul with an unprecended speed. The Afghan US-trained army was the first to run away. Britain is an ally of the most violent state in the world and it has a history too. It invaded Afghanistan 3 times, supported the fundamnetalist Mujahidin in the 1979 untill late 1980s. Woody Grego Ned Ma  O look its the Muslim who whines about how great Muslims have been for the UK now speaking as his true self just another Muslim from another sh!thole country. Ned Ma Woody Grego  Oh look! another prejudiced, bigot. I am not a Muslim or even religious at all. Those who cannot deal with the comment itself or ...

A report from Miami, Florida

An interview with Vivek Chibber

NYT, 19 June 2025

A short reply to this question circulating in the social media. I fundamentally disagree with the basics of the analysis and the appeal. As the question states there are Arab nations, not one. They have been divided for a long time. They do not have common interests. Nor do they have an 'Arab NATO' or form  an 'Arab EU'.  So any comparison with one nation like Canada or England, for example, and that the US would defend in the event of a foreign attack, is misplaced. The US in fact would hurry to defend the UAE or Saudi Arabia. The Arab nations are divided and ruled by ruling classes (combrador bourgeoisies with different colours) that have more in common with the rulers in the West than with the Arab people in the respective countries. One has to link colonial division with the neocolonial studies as students at universities are doing. The UAE    and Turkey, for example, have been expanding their strategic outreach for more capital accummulation. Saudi Arabia has...

This was originally published in November 2023 A geopolitical analysis divorced from sociology/international sociology , i.e. no link to class, class relations at home and capital accumulation. However, it is important not to lose track amidst what is happening now.