[Marxism] Swans' Release: September 20, 2004

["Gilles d'Aymery" <aymery@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.swans.com/
September 20, 2004 -- In this issue:

Note from the Editor:    The Kerryistas have the jitters. Their man
increasingly looks like the flake he actually is. Advice pours in from all
quarters. Old Clinton hands have come on board. Pick a message,
they say, any message. Take on the prez. Run with passion. Problem
is, the man has no message except Anyone But Bush -- will out-do
Bush, just better, see. You can't take on a Teflon president
(remember Reagan?) and his friendly smile and homey nature
(relatively speaking) with a stiff deadwood à la Kerry (remember
Gore?). As to passion, Kerry looks more like Mel Gibson's hero than
Don Quixote... He has no position on anything, and he can't. The
country's only course ahead is war with no end till we all walk over
the cliff. All other indicators are going south and the American people,
in their majority, are "progressively" more reactionary. Even the
security moms (the soccer mums are passé) have turned to Bush, the
savior! The funny part of this entire rigolade is that these two tartuffes
are related -- sort of cousins all the way back to their New England
(not Texan) and English roots.

For his fiftieth Swans' essay, Philip Greenspan does not mince words
and explains lucidly the nature and workings of the US system, all the
while demonstrating that the majority of Americans, the non-voters,
the poor and downtrodden, may know more about the inner-
workings of a government made of, by, and for the elite than most
voters do (we're looking forward to Greenspan's next 50). And, as
Milo Clark shows, while the liberal intelligentsia is endeavoring to
change this system, it is being shown as impotent, irresponsible and
hypothetical, both collectively and individually. Why's that, Clark does
not say...yet.

So what does our vote mean?, asks Manuel García, who struggles to
find any real meaning, yet prods everybody to vote, to remain
engaged, to agitate, to keep in mind the growing legions of poor
people, and "to help in softening those blows we know will fall."

Too bleak an assessment, in your estimation? You say we are being
much too pessimistic -- an un-American trait? But do the "candidates"
talk about any real issue at hand, beside the usual indoctrinated
perceptions, the lies and super-lies about a war without end, and
machismo galore? And do Americans want to hear about the real
issues? Got a beer? Phil Rockstroh provides a clear depiction of our
current actualities, ensconced in our materialistic selves and our fear-
addicted and antidepressant-gorged bulimia -- hard to blindly
embrace optimism... And see, thanks to Macdonald Stainsby, our
latest new contributor, the ecocidal and genocidal colonization that is
happening right under our nose with our Canadian cousins up north.
Any reason to rejoice?

Want to talk about education and how American kids are rapidly
falling behind the rest of the industrialized world? Jan Baughman's
cartoon says it all...

No book review this time around, sorry; but two poems (even our
poets have the election on their minds), and the blips from the Martian
desk as well as the Letters to the Editor.

As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and
foes) know about Swans.

                                    *****

Here are the links to all the pieces:

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/pgreen50.html
The Continual Election Winner
- by Philip Greenspan

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mgc137.html
Impotent, Irresponsible And Hypothetical
- by Milo Clark

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mgarci22.html
What Your Vote Means
- by Manuel García, Jr.

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/procks34.html
>From Suburban Subdivisions To Sadr City: An Ode To My Comfort
Level
- by Phil Rockstroh

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mstain01.html
The Creator Vs. Canadian Imperialism<br>Exercise Narwhal,
Gunboat Diplomacy, and Oil
- by Macdonald Stainsby

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/jeb135.html
No Child Left Behind
- Cartoon by Jan Baughman

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/elib020.html
Vote for America, My Love
- Poem by Eli Beckerman

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/gsmith26.html
The President who Never Was (for Al Gore)
- Poem by Gerard Donnelly Smith

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/desk002.html
Blips #2
>From the Editor's Desk

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/letter50.html
Letters to the Editor

                                    #####

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Thank you for reading Swans.

Gilles d'Aymery
--
Swans

"Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon."  B. Brecht


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