Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Michael Roberts: Interesting insights into the nature and context of Trumpism by Paul Mason . Not sure about this policy prescription though!  "Make a strategic alliance with the remnants of neoliberalism to defend the rule of law, democracy and tolerance, similar to the Popular Front project sponsored by the Comintern in the 1930s." That did not do so well.

U.N accuses Turkey of killing hundreds of Kurds

Imprisoned and tortured by the PA, executed by the Israeli occupying forces

England " Some 95% of the 1,054 heads, deputies and senior teachers responding to the survey said they had cut back on support services - including equipment and materials, as well as mental health and special needs support. More than eight out of 10 said class sizes had increased - a claim strongly refuted by the Department for Education. And more than two-thirds said they had cut back on activities like clubs and trips." (bbc online) The refugees fault? Too many foreigners breeding like rabbits? They wish they could privatise all schools like what they have been doing to the National Health Service. Where is Richard Branson to "fund" education? Higher education is already elitist, why not making all education elitist, i.e. only for those who can afford it?  These capitalists cannot afford even to be Keynesians. They have the money for wars and bombs. They tell us our aid and charities, and missionaries, are helping poor people in Africa and elsewher...

In think Airwars is making too much fuss. The killing of civilians is "a collateral damage" in achieving the higher, ultimate goal of the civilized and liberating mission by defeating the so-called Islamic State whose militants have beheaded our men, and Yazidis, and whose "jihadists" have killed our people in France, Germany and the US. "The price is worth it". Coalition airforces kill "hundreds" of Mosul civilians

A book review Inglorious Empire: what the British did to India

Market, Debt, New Fundamentalisms

The "civilized" can afford to build memorials for those who fought for ".Queen and country"; who fought the "uncivilized" in order to liberate women, and dogs. The resources and the idelogical machine of "the civilized" can afford to glorify barbarism, destruction, state terrorism so they look just and legitimate. Then they can afford, with no shame and qualms at all, to have their criminals who have perpetrated the destrcution and the "liberation" to be "peace envoys" or preachers at universities. 

"Post-colonial Theory and the Specter of Capital"

The Scots do not want to live longer! " Scotland is facing an unprecedented mortality crisis, according to newly released figures which reveal that, in the past three years, life expectancy has failed to rise for the first time since records were published in 1861."  — The Sunday Times

30% of the Egyptian families have a woman as the only bread winner ( BBC Arabic )

The CIA Reads French Theory On the Intellectual Labor of Dismantling the Cultural Left

" Following what we’ve seen in Europe, it makes sense that when the populist right is in power, the center-left  moves to the right . The Democrats are a little bit different, in that you’re going to see some semblance of a leftward movement — doubling down on the social inclusion part of the Democratic Party — and resisting some of Trump’s nativism, while moving rightward on issues of political economy to try to win over moderate segments of the capitalist class. I think you’ll see a leftward and a rightward movement at the same time." Full interview here

Why the system will still win

" Turning and turning in the widening gyre   The falcon cannot hear the falconer;   Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;   Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,   The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   The ceremony of innocence is drowned;   The best lack all conviction, while the worst   Are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats No, the Centre can still hold. The economic and political order since the 1980s, a form capitalism, has been accepted and supported by centre-right and centre-left governments of the same regime. The two movements which has opposed that order are now stigmatised as "populism". The revolutionary left is weak and divided.  Despite the crises (economic, social, theoretical, and political), Brexit, Trump, refugees, etc. there is no real threat to the established order to compel the Centre to resort to the fascist or semi-fascist forces. No, the general crisis can still be managed by the Libera...

" My main point was that the current dominance of finance capital was not achieved only by force but also by what Gramsci called “consent.” Against "progressive neoliberalism"

The Role of Oxfam, Unicef, Live Aid in the Systematic Destabilization of African Nations

Mutations of fascism

“Under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not… No more is required, and no more can reasonably be asked, for this planet to remain a place fit for human habitation.” — Hannah Arendt

" There is nothing socialist about this, nothing social democratic, nothing liberal, nothing progressive, nothing moral, nothing with any optimism or imagination." What is it?