Happy May Day to Vlad the Impaler & others
Yesterday wasn’t May Day, of course, but,
the rare earths deal between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was certainly a bit of early May Day stocking stuffer for Russian President Vladimir Putin, even if the deal is more style than substance.
And, there’s a background to that, going back to the weekend and Trump’s meeting with Zelensky before The Donald snubbed Vatican protocol at the funeral of Francis the Talking Pope. (Think about it, think about it.)
"Too many people are dying!!!”
Finer words have ...
NEVER been said ...
By either Trump, or any other Rethugican, or any other Democrap ...
About Gaza.
That said, Mr. "One-day deal" Trump did say them, after meeting with Zelensky, last Saturday at the funeral of the latest holder of office of antichrist
Antichrist is dead!
Those not living on an island know that Francis — sometimes addressed by me on Blogger as “Francis the talking pope” to riff on the 1950s inane TV show, died Monday.
(He is actually much more like "the man of lawlessness," but it's fun to keep extending this.
AND?
Trump's at least talking about additional sanctions on Russia.
It may be all talk. Or, like most his tariffs on countries not named China, could be enacted then reversed.
Two things.
First, this shows that Trump is not Putin's puppet. (BlueAnon remain self-created puppets of tribalism, though.)
Second, this is why I, while acknowledging the reality of Eastern Europe since James Baker's "not one inch eastward," about which both the late Gorbachev and living Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ have lied, while acknowledging the drunken sailor money for drunken Boris Yeltsin, and acknowledging Maidan and afterward in Ukraine, I disagree with the likes of Norman Finkelstein in considering Putin's invasion "justified." As I've noted, it's a word I avoid using in such situations in general.
I will go beyond this, and say that Putin's current maximalist demands are UNjustified. And, I break with non-skeptical leftists who can't call out Putin at some point, or call out China's Xi as needed.
And, as a reminder? I've offered my own peace plan, which Zelensky wouldn't like, but which is far short of Putin's maximalism.
Will this move Putin off his maximalist demands?
Maybe, maybe not. Similar to what the US did in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia has massively increased sign-up bonuses and other benefits for new recruits.
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I did say “and others” in the header.
Vlad’s not a Communist, despite Trots and Tankies being among his stanners. It is May Day, though, and we should first detour to a brief look at why May Day is not a deal in Merikkka.
Part of it may be Americans thinking they’re past issues of “class.”
Part of it is more than that.
In reality? This should be the date that "Labor Day" is celebrated. It's the date of International Workers' Day. It's the date that the American Federation of Labor called for the eight-hour day to be implemented, in 1886. And, that exact date is the day the Haymarket rally started.
Per the first link, ConservaDem President Grover Cleveland pushed for the September Labor Day date precisely to "defang" it and remove Haymarket connections.
Even worse? Per that page, Ike, Mr. "one nation UNDER GOD" Pledge of Allegiance president, declared May 1 to be Loyalty Day. Because "godless Communism," of course.
And with that, let’s go to those Commies, right here in Merikkka.
As in, new Commies!
As in “Happy May Day” to a new Commie party!
Yeah, that subhed is pure snark, but Mac Williams, Substack buds with Rainer Shea of the People's Republic of Humboldt County, is serious.
Why? The normal reasons. Other parties have been co-opted (PSL), are elbow-throwing Trots (SEP), or in Williams' own words:
Communism with a capital C is on the rise in the US once again. Along with it grows a contingent of liberal-leftists—the Malthusian degrowth peddlers, the confused anti-settler-Turtle-Island inhabitants, and the degenerate Trotskyites— all hyperventilating in disbelief at birth of a new Marxist-Leninist party that’s formed in the tradition of William Z. Foster’s CPUSA of old: The American Communist Party.
Against all logic these apostates insist that the ACP is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This video features Haz Al-Din, Chairman of the ACP, sweeping aside this non-sensical claim.
So, along come the new American Communist Party, which he says will be as pure as the old CPUSA and in direct line with it.
Williams either is ignorant of the factionalism and fractionalism of the CPUSA, or else he's gaslighting the 14 followers the likes of him and Shea might have.
And, yeah, you and Haz Al-Din and Shea will become just another bit of flotsam in the new factionalism and fractionalism. The US is still missing a Merikkkan version of Shining Path or another specifically Maoist party, though.
And, yes, what better day than May Day to post all of this?
And, I bring some thought here.
First,
I voted for the Commie
Per what I wrote just over a week ago, offering my latest, detailed, insights about third parties of the left, earlier today I did what I mention in the header and voted for the Commie, specifically for Claudia de la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
“I voted for the Commie” last year, or the PSL nominal Commie.
That said, the old “bon mot” about Marx himself that he was great on description, horrible on prescription, is spot-on — as far as it goes, which isn’t enough.
The fact is that Marxism — whether Papa Karl’s original, Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Castroism, Frankfurt School-ism or anything else?
Any theory of a social science, let alone a hard science, that makes Hegelian dialectic into its theoretical base is automatically pseudoscience.
Happy May Day, Commies!