THE ENCHANTMENTS OF MAMMON - HOW CAPITALISM BECAME THE RELIGION OF MODERNITY

 The title for this blogpost is the title of Eugene McCarraher's magisterial book, published in 2019 in the USA. I bought my copy last year as soon as I discovered that this 800-page work that has taken two decades to produce had been published. McCarraher is an associate professor at Villanova University, a Catholic research institution in Pennsylvania. 

Professor Eugene McCarraher - Villanova University

Here are extracts from the insightful review by Julian Coman, published in the Observer newspaper on 22 December 2019, with some commentary from myself:

To begin, I should point out that a volume with this title was bound to attract my attention. In my book: 'The Road to Corbyn' (2016) - [copies available using this link here] - Mammon soon makes his appearance. This work, after all, is my reworking of John Bunyan's 'The Pilgrim's Progress' for our 21st century times:

'The Lady Hope had warned him that there would be moments of testing on his journey in search of truth. He must have passed through the archway that marked an election victory and found himself in this celebratory fair. Pilgrim could feel the sense of a past recalled sweep through him. Another journey, another place, another fair... Souls sold for commercial gain... The merchandising of every human activity and all things... A fair dating back to the beginning of time and ruled by Mammon, the grasping figure of greed who controlled the human species through love of money. Vanity Fair. (16) - p.15

16. 'Mammon' is a term used to describe gluttony and unjust worldly gain in the Christian Bible. it was first personified as a false god in the New Testament of that Bible. (Mt. 6.24; Lk. 16.13.)'

I should also note that I first became aware of Professor McCarraher's book and ordered my copy as I struggled with my own disappointment with the Tory landslide victory in the December 2019 General

WE NEED HOWARD BECKETT AS THE LEADER OF THE UNITE UNION - WE NEED A SOCIALIST WHO TELLS IT AS IT IS

 Thanks to SKWAWKBOX for this material - I loved working my way through text and video - I am sure some of you will too. (You will find a reference to LoveActually which I think is magnificent cinema, fit to be valued in a generation or two as a film of cultural significance - Howard Beckett could be heading for a similar place in the history books.)

Breaking: Beckett on ballot

Howard Beckett - a socialist for our times

News confirmed via ‘Love Actually’ style tweet (though really it’s far more directly Bob Dylan)

Left favourite Howard Beckett has this evening confirmed his place on the ballot of Unite members to choose the next general secretary of the giant Unite union.

Beckett has withstood huge pressure, as the left machine tried to lever him off despite coming second in nominations and the determination of all other candidates who passed the threshold to take up their place – and his decision is the one the union’s members, the wider movement and the country need.

In typical style, the announcement came couched in humour and with a dig at the Establishment on both sides of the House of Commons:

In typical style, the announcement came couched in humour and with a dig at the Establishment on both sides of the House of Commons:

Questions have been raised about the nomination totals for other candidates, where transparency has been lacking and complaints from disenfranchised members numerous. Beckett, by contrast, announced every one of his nominations and thanked those who voted for him. Now members will have their say and the chance to choose the candidate who stands head and shoulders above the rest.

                                             Feck it, vote Beckett.

We need socialists - we need Howard Beckett

That's a message of concern for the neoliberal Tories

OUR WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF YANIS VAROUFAKIS - INSIGHTS INTO ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY

I have produced economic blogposts before - see this link here for an explanation of Modern Monetary Theory which everyone needs to understand to avoid having the wool pulled over their eyes by mendacious and patronizing politicians. This blogpost has some very useful insights too. 

Yanis Varoufakis - academic and politician

Yanis Varoufakis is both an academic and a politician. Born in Athens in 1961, he spent twelve years teaching at the University of Sydney in Australia and has also taught at various British universities: Essex, East Anglia, Cambridge, and Glasgow. He served as the Greek minister of finance until quitting when the European Economic Community determined that Greece would follow an austerity programme. The Democracy in Europe Movement (DIEM25) was founded by him in 2016 as a political means of bringing about change in Europe through resistance to the neoliberal economic agenda that has become a dominant defining force throughout much of the world. Yanis Varoufakis describes the world that is now shaping us as post-capitalist. 

This blogpost is based on his online streamed lecture on post-capitalism that was aired on 21 April 2021.

• In this post-capitalist world, the financial sphere has decoupled itself from the economic sphere. The old 20th century adage that what was good for General Motors was good for the USA held true for as long as General Motors was just a car manufacturing company. But by the time of the global economic crisis in 2008, General Motors may have still been making cars but most of its profits came from finance trading. 
• The industrial revolution turned the world upside down in the 19th century. In the new world of

THE INSIDE STORY FROM CUMMINGS AS HE SEEKS TO MINIMISE HIS OWN ROLE IN THIS MISGOVERNMENT

I AM A SUPPORTER OF SPOTLIGHT NEWS AND SUBSCRIBE A FEW POUNDS EACH MONTH TO THIS EXCELLENT PROJECT.

HERE ARE CUMMINGS' REVELATIONS OF YESTERDAY IN SUMMARY FORM PRESENTED BY KOSER SAEED FOR SHARING. SHE IS THE JOURNALIST AND RESEARCHER WHO IS ALSO THE EDITOR OF THE SPOTLIGHT ONLINE NEWSPAPER.

Cummings and Johnson when they were in it together 

There’s been a lot of coverage of todays revelations by Dominic Cummings by various news sources who have tried their best to condense a 7hr investigation into 6-10mins. Novara did an excellent program covering many of the points but even that’s almost 1.5hrs long and doesn’t cover everything so we thought it might be helpful to condense all the key points down into an overview for folks who perhaps don’t have the time to sit through all that content..

• Cummings said Boris Johnson is not a fit and proper person to get us through a pandemic.
• In February 2020, Johnson was referring to the pandemic as nothing more than a “scare story” and no more serious than “swine flu”. Cummings claims this is  why Johnson missed 5 Cobra meetings.
• According to Cummings, Johnson proposed a stunt where he would get the Chief Medical Officer to inject him with COVID live on TV to try and convince people that there was nothing to worry about.
• Around the same time, Johnson was boasting about how he was happily shaking hands with COVID patients.
• They were also discussing keeping major sports events and pubs open so more people

THE ART OF CONCEALING THE NEWS - AS PRACTISED BY UK MISGOVERNMENT

No surprises here - but please never lose your sense of shock. It really has got this bad in the UK. My source here is this afternoon's Mirror Politics: 

Government quietly publishes troubling new India variant data late on Saturday night

A risk assessment rated the increased transmissibility and the reduced effectiveness of vaccines on the India variant as ‘red’ - and warned it had an "increased growth rate" compared to the Kent variant.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus

Public Health England (PHE) was supposed to publish the latest weekly data on new variants of the virus on Thursday.

But the data was eventually published two days later, late on a Saturday night.

YET MORE LIES FROM THE MOUTHS OF THIS MALEVOLENT MISGOVERNMENT

On Monday of this week, pubs, theatres, museums, hotels and sports venues reopened in most parts of Britain. Read my last blogpost - here - to explore the reasons why it was a mistake to lift restrictions at this time. 

As the Daily Mirror commented on Monday, 'Boris Johnson this morning placed the responsibility for what happens next on the shoulders of the British public.' The newspaper cited his words: "I urge everyone to be cautious and take responsibility when enjoying new freedoms today".

The sub-text here reads: ' It will be your fault, not mine, if you catch the virus and die'.

 

COVID-19 Indian variant hot-spots - as of two days ago

The Daily Mirror continued: 'Many are asking whether the government acted cautiously and responsibly when it delayed adding India to the travel-ban red list. India was only added to the list two weeks after restrictions were placed on travel from Bangladesh and Pakistan despite having more cases per hundred thousand people than either of these two countries'. 

Was this true? And if so why was India made an exception?

The Daily Mirror explored the questions further, asking whether the delay was influenced by the fact that back then Johnson was still planning to travel to India to meet Modi, the Indian leader, with the hope of securing a post-Brexit trade deal. 

The Sunday Times, the day before, had quoted an anonymous Whitehall source saying: "It's very clear we should have closed the border to India earlier and that Boris did not do so because he didn't want to offend Modi."

Between April 9, when the restrictions were placed on Pakistan and Bangladesh, and April 23

THOUGHTS FROM A JEREMIAH - HOW TO SURVIVE AND FLOURISH IN A PANDEMIC

     'We've had both our jabs now - we're alright. Panic over. Let's get back to normal. Book that holiday.'

Music to the serial liar's ears. That nasty man who wears the calculated mask cares only for himself. He is in the business of protecting and developing his power and status. If called on to justify his actions - and inactions - he would explain that his concern is to get the British economy back to being world-beating - or some such rhetorical emptiness. 

Johnson - a nasty and dangerous leader - thanks to the Guardian for this cartoon

The fact is our tiny economic 'recovery' this year is significantly lower than any other European country apart from Spain. Since 2010 and the election of the Tory-led coalition government that introduced the vile policies associated with austerity, the British economy has been under-performing and broadly stagnant. Austerity became the governing principle for our society in order to put the economy back on its feet.  That's what they told us. We're all in this together - a little pain now, but it will all be worth it. 

Well, the super-rich have done very well out of the last decade of stagnation. Much of the money created at the press of a button by those in charge of quantitative-easing to save the banks and the economy from