The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

Tim Walz Is Excellent Domestically & Pro-Genocide

If I were an American, I’d be pretty happy about the guy, unless I have a problem with mass murder of foreigners.

On the good side:

  • signed a bill giving free breakfast lunch to all students;
  • 20 weeks of paid family & medical leave, for America, excellent;
  • right to repair bill;
  • free college tuition for students whose families make less than 80K;
  • banned non-competes;
  • and so on.

So, domestically, excellent. But he’s pro-Israel:

At AIPAC:

Israel is our truest and closest ally in the region, with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties, surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood.

“The values of personal freedoms of liberties” about an apartheid state is pretty rich.

To the Jewish Community Relationship Council, June 2, 2024 (aka, while the genocide was ongoing):

I see people debating something I don’t feel is debatable here. The ability of Jewish people to self-determine is foundational to everything […] and the failure to recognize the State of Israel taking away that self-determination. So it is anti-semitic, and that is a statement of fact.

If what you’re going to do with your “self determination” is commit a genocide, then you shouldn’t have self-determination. Note also the conflation of Israel with being Jewish, which if I were Jewish, I’d object to on the strongest terms, not wanting to be associated with mass murder.

Of course he’s the VP pick, Harris is healthy and he’s unlikely to matter a great deal. That said, he’s about as good as Harris was likely to pick. I’d say that the Harris/Walz ticket is better for more Americans than Trump/Vance, as long as you can get past the whole genocide thing.

Consider that damning with faint praise.


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32 Comments

  1. Willy

    AIPAC is knocking off anti-zionist progressives one at a time. They know the game, you win when you throw big money at advertising to low-information voters. Be nice to hear from Missouri residents how AIPAC did their anti-Cori ads and other primary strategies.

    Not saying Walz is afraid of them, but he’s definitely making compromises. It’d be a lot more effective to attack AIPAC directly, which seems clearly under Netanyahoo control with Zionists not currently operating from a defensive position, but clearly on genocidal offense.

  2. DMC

    At least it wasn’t Shapiro who is actually an IDF veteran. Walz might support a regime that rapes people with dogs but Shapiro has likely raped and murdered men women and children. So it’s bad or worse, just like everything else.

  3. anon

    I’m on a subreddit for my city and the overwhelming sentiment from commenters is that they hate what is happening in Gaza, they don’t support genocide, BUT there is a war happening in American right now and they have to vote in the best interests of Americans before worrying about anyone else on the other side of the world.

    I get it. There are serious problems in America and it’s better to vote for the pro-Israel candidate who wants to do good things for Americans over the pro-Israel candidate who will make life worse for Americans. I wish Walz were at the top of the ticket because what he has accomplished as governor of Minnesota is what needs to happen across the country.

    A lot of us hate that most American politicians are pro-Israel but that is unlikely to change anytime soon. I do believe there is hope that AIPAC and Israel won’t be as influential in several generations. For now, Americans need to focus mainly on voting in politicians who will help Americans although part of that solution would be to stop funding unnecessary wars abroad and Israel’s genocide.

  4. ProNewerDeal

    Is Walz possibly the first Duopoly Pres or VP candidate since the 1981-now neoliberal/Reganomics era that is actually a halfway-Social Democratic Net Good & not a Lesser Evil/Reagan Clone?

    Who was the last duopoly candidate that was not a Lesser Evil, Lyndon Johnson?

  5. Ian, he isn’t as great domestically when faced with targeted pressure, he bailed on US nurses, Uber and Lyft workers as per this good piece:

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/08/democrats-vp-choice-tim-walz-has-a-history-of-working-on-the-side-of-monied-interests-against-workers.html

    He may have done good but given how he likely might get thrown off on the national stage when faced with big pressure from even bigger money, I don’t really think he will “fight for the common person” or whatever bullshit Americans are likely to tell themselves while voting for a pro-genocidaire person.

  6. bruce wilder

    If he is on board with genocide, he’s ok with the security state, surveillance, censorship, rule by the military-industrial complex. Kind of a package deal, no?

  7. enoughisenough

    I am in favor of Walz compared to the psychopaths we usually get saddled with, but the Uber thing, but ALSO do not forget his greenwashing with EV boondoggles while pushing through (with force) the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. Using public police as heavies for the private corp.
    Physically harming water protectors.
    Also, MN has no emission standards at all. (like several other states). Touting EVs while not fixing that is LUDICROUS.

  8. Roger the cabin boy

    I feel like that statement from Walz is a boiler plate political statement. I think practically every politician in America has said the same for decades.
    Bruce with the utmost respect for you how many serving politicians in America openly break from the security state?
    I think basically none because they can’t. If the best choice that’s available is terrible I can understand not accepting it. As far as I can see the only alternative is to throw your body into the gears.

  9. Willy

    Current Israel (Likud Party) is all about being a security state, surveillance, censorship, and rule by the military-industrial complex. Yet they strangely left their own border with Gaza unwatched.

    AIPAC, founded as a liberal Jewish defense organization with values in line with average American Jews, is now a org of concentrated right wing power with little in common with the values of most American Jews.

    Psychopathic power knows that most people prefer to (or can be easily led to) vent their frustration onto others in their own class, even those sharing many similar values, rather than towards the evil wielding the power which caused the problems to begin with.

    Those three are related somehow.

    BTW:

    https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-governor-tim-walz-clean-car-emissions-rule-survives-legal-challenge-auto-dealers-climate/600312541

  10. tc

    On the other hand its 5 months to inauguration. 5 months of genocide free-for-all. Gaza genocide could be largely a fait accompli. by Feb 2025. ‘Course we might be talking about west bank and beirut genocide by then.
    As for Walz there is a tiny tiny hope in my heart that he’s been keeping his gunpowder dry for when it can make a difference. But most dems like Pelosi just think political capital should never ever be spent, so Im realistic.

  11. Feral Finster

    However liberals and democrats justify voting for a conscious and open genocide.

    Own it. I hope that the crumbs you get tossed are worth it.

  12. enoughisenough

    Thanks for that Willy!
    Problem is, although requiring better emissions standards for new car is good, it is NOT the same as having *emissions standards. Meaning gross polluters are allowed on the roads, and cars do not need to be checked to ensure they aren’t polluting. So essentially, again, this only works for the wealthy, who can buy new cars, EV or otherwise.

    From the Star Tribune article
    “On its website, MPCA notes the new rule does not apply to existing vehicles or used vehicles for sale, nor does it require emissions testing or the outright purchase of an electric vehicle (EV).”

    ^^that’s the whole point. It’s just kicking the can down the road, when emissions need to be cut NOW.

  13. GrimJim

    Sadly, most American Anti-Palestinian Genocide protest is typical outrage-of-the-month performance art for the sake of performance.

    There are, of course, the core cadre who are trying to make a difference, but they are few and far between.

    The USA is a state founded on genocide. It’s part of the DNA. And it is still ongoing here… With some on the Right, especially the MAGAts, seeking to step that up.

    The Native Nation Genocide never stopped. It only just slowed down.

    The African American Genocide started the moment the old slave masters realized they could use their labor without worrying about their health. The massive incarceration of African Americans since the Black Codes has been a combined Slave Labor/Genocide machine.

    It’s all right there, in every American’s face, every day.

    And almost nobody gives a damn.

    And it happens. Right. Here. Every. Day.

    Why would anyone here care if the Sons of Isaac slaughter their cousins, the Sons of Ishmael, off in some God-forsaken wasteland?

  14. Jefferson Hamilton

    Walz doesn’t matter. Harris won’t vacate the office and she won’t be pressured by him. There is a slim chance, however, that weather vane Trump could be influenced by Vance.

  15. Feral Finster

    If anyone really cared about emissions, the US military is the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world.

    https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/Pentagon%20Fuel%20Use%2C%20Climate%20Change%20and%20the%20Costs%20of%20War%20Revised%20November%202019%20Crawford.pdf

  16. Dan Kelly

    Thank you Ian.

    It’s not just AIPAC. The Israel Lobby, which used to be called the Jewish Lobby by everyone, including Jews (I’m currently re-reading Charles Levinson’s “Vodka Cola” – written in 1978 – and Levinson, a Jewish man, uses the term “Jewish Lobby”) is multifaceted, sophisticated and ubiquitous. It includes the ADL, B’nai B’rith and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, in addition to all the USA-y sounding groups like PAC FOR AMERICA! or something similar – which turn out to be clandestine groups using the money for Israel and its communities operating within other nations. No, not ‘the jews’ though they will gladly speak for all Jews and intentionally foment ‘anti-semitism’ for their own ends:

    https://annas-archive.org/md5/bd35d3f412ebafaa8e84645f907c6770

    “I write this article for the same reason I wrote my book: To tell the American people, and especially American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called ‘cruel Zionism.’ I write about it because I was part of it.” – Iraqi Jew Naeim Giladi

    https://archive.ph/dH2Oa

    Giladi’s book is called ‘Ben-Gurion’s Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews.’

    https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Ben-Gurion%27s+Scandals%3A+How+the+Haganah+and+the+Mossad+Eliminated+Jews

    Remember, the standard history teaches that David Ben-Gurion was more ‘liberal-minded’ than the much more militant ‘Jabotinsky’ wing of the Zionist movement. The reality is that they worked hand-in-glove to achieve their ends. Their ends were well outlined by Gennady Zyuganov back in 1998:

    “Zyuganov said Zionism was not a movement of Jews returning to their homeland. Rather, he said, ‘Zionism has in reality revealed itself as one of the varieties of the theory and practice of the most aggressive imperialistic circles striving for world supremacy.’
    Zyuganov observed, ‘In this respect it is similar to fascism. The only difference between them is that Hitler’s Nazism was performing under the guise of German nationalism and sought world supremacy openly. And Zionism, performing under the guise of Jewish nationalism, is operating stealthily, using other people’s hands.'”

    The Washington Post couldn’t stand hearing these plainly obvious truths being uttered:

    https://archive.ph/T8NJH#selection-731.0-757.323

    Personally, I prefer Zyuganov to Putin. Too bad we don’t hear more from/about him from ‘the left’ in the US and around the world. Even the ‘hard left’ or whatever it’s supposed to be.

    Political positions of Gennady Zyuganov: https://archive.ph/wJg9m

    Gideon Levy on liberal Zionists: https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=MN24hes1PRA

    Sound familiar? Good cop-bad cop, good Jew-bad Jew, Carter-Reagan/Bush, Clinton-Bush, Obama/Biden-Trump

    “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies… is a foolish idea. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.” – Carroll Quigley

    AIPAC, founded as a liberal Jewish defense organization with values in line with average American Jews

    No it wasn’t. AIPAC has always been a clandestine operation, run by people with Israel-first values. Grant Smith has probably done the best work uncovering this little-known history, via FOIA requests and deep dives beyond the superficial history we’re presented with (the same reason people read Ian’s blog).

    A quick primer on AIPAC’s history and ongoing activity can be found in the following audio broadcast and accompanying transcript from March of this year entitled ‘Why AIPAC is STILL Israel’s Foreign Agent:

    https://archive.ph/cocEU#selection-341.0-341.41

    Here is a presentation Grant Smith gave a few years ago outlining the JFK administration’s attempts at getting Israel and its orgs to play by the same rules every other nation-state was required to follow. Rather than register, they closed up shop and rebranded as AIPAC.

    IRmep Director Grant Smith on JFK’s Efforts to Stop Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Program:

    https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=BWCgSSEiQns (1 of 3)

    https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=0ecbCoZJlgI&listen=false (2 of 3)

    https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=mqjU4jEHf94&listen=false (3 of 3)

    Does AIPAC Have Only Two Major Donors?(!!!!!!!!!!):

    “Unlike the far more numerous nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations, which have to continually ‘means test’ that they have a wide public funding base in order for contributor donations to be tax-deductible, contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations such as AIPAC (which actively lobbies Congress, the executive, and numerous government agencies) are not tax-deductible. There are no contribution limits to 501 (c)(4) nonprofit groups. Individuals, foreign nationals, partnerships, associations, and other organizations may contribute whatever amount they like to a 501(c)(4).

    Given AIPAC’s oversize clout in U.S. Middle East policy, it’s always informative to see just how many people are giving — and how much. When AIPAC’s founder, Isaiah Kenen, was dispatched in the early 1950s from his job at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs with orders to lobby the U.S. Congress for guns and diplomatic support as an American (rather than the U.S. State Department as an Israeli foreign agent), it was supposed to be only a six-month gig. As that operation morphed into a semi-permanent Washington institution run outside the normal purview of the Foreign Agents Registration Act office, AIPAC was forced to tap a very small base of wealthy donors (some with criminal records) while simultaneously receiving covert support from the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.

    After that ‘conduit’ foreign- funding ruse was uncovered by a Justice Department investigation, Kenen emerged from the crisis and slowly built back up AIPAC’s donor base, whipping up post-1967 Six-Day War donor fears and anxieties that Israel was in danger of being overrun (it wasn’t) if people didn’t send in their checks. Now, AIPAC is pushing largely the same ‘Israel in danger’ emotional buttons, with Iran as the flashing red light.”

    https://archive.ph/PbQQG

    I agree that Walz is as good as we’re going to get domestically right now.

    ——————————————————————————-

    There is a lot of substantive, well-sourced information here. The Invidious links can be refreshed or other Invidious ‘instances’ can be used if the current link isn’t working. If all Invidious are unreachable, the titles can be put into a search engine and the videos will usually be able to be viewed on the original commercial, advertising/spying platforms such as youtube.

    The anna’s archive links to books seem to always work for me, albeit slowly at times.

  17. responseTwo

    In other words; just letting climate change get worse, let billionaires keep running the government, keep perpetual war going, and keep transferring more money to the billionaires.

    We either find a way to incorporate a good dose of socialism into the government so its main focus is helping society and ending wars, or the ship will sink.

  18. DMC

    It never ceases to amaze me that so many Americans are so indifferent, not only about paying for active genocide but their entire government being suborned by a foreign power. Until the current monetary form of lobbying is outlawed, we’re going to be getting the corrupt stooges of plutocrats and Zionists. As long as Legislators are for sale, someone is going to buy them.

  19. Willy

    Then maybe get out there and do something? Seems too many people can never be impressed enough with a reasonably decent politician. (not to be confused with general bitching and moaning which I do all the time) I’m talking about making perfect the enemy of the good. Bernie’s a sheepdog! AOC’s a sellout! If they expect perfection from their politicians then they’re living on the wrong planet. We’re lucky the better ones don’t quit from all the bitching and general nefariousness and get a far more lucrative gig as one of Peter Thiel’s propaganda goons.

    What I find interesting, is a lot of other places seem pretty excited about Walz. Is the Dem Overton window moving?

  20. mago

    People getting excited over Walz, over tough gal Kamala, about Vance, like ants in your pants.
    Liar liar pants on fire/nose as long as a telephone wire.
    It’s theater! Everybody’s talking about it! Extra! Extra!
    Everybody’s doing it, doing it/ picking their nose and chewing it, chewing it.
    It’s election time!
    Whoopee! We’re all gonna die.
    Yeah, all right. It’s serious all right. Seriously deluded and distracting.
    Talk about laugh about it when you have to choose. Any way you look at it you lose.
    Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a lonely nation turns its eyes to you.
    On a more serious note AIPAC and it’s enablers have got to go. Woe woe woe.

  21. Jefferson Hamilton

    >perfect the enemy of the good.

    God, I am so sick of these liberal platitudes. It’s only “good” if it accomplishes something. This pick doesn’t mean shit. I couldn’t care less what the good little blue doggies are wagging their tails about elsewhere. Let Kamala come out strong in her support for Lina Khan and I’ll vote for her. Gaza’s fucked under either party, frankly.

    And Ocasio-Cortez (not gonna use that stupid monogram) is a sell-out, it would be if she had any principles other than gaining power in the first place, which she probably didn’t. She sucks.

  22. Willy

    You forgot: I fought the law, and the law won. (or for most, the man.) Lesson learned.

    You can be the rightest man in town, always trying to do the right thing and beloved by all. But if the town’s owned by old Mr. Potter, you’re gonna need some help from Frank Capra.

    I liked Steven King better. As Andy once said: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

  23. different clue

    As an American, I can’t escape the fact that somebody is going to get elected President and Vice President. It can’t be prevented.

    In my weary realistic way, I suspect the PrezVice will either be TrumpenVance or HarrisnWalz. Either one would accept the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Maybe HarrisnWalz would accept less of it. My personal feeling is that Trump would support extending it to West Bank, East Jerusalem and maybe even all the Palestinians within the 67 borders of Israel Proper. That may be what Netanyahu is hoping for when he hopes TrumpenVance will be elected PrezVice.

    I would like to buy 4 more years of semi-peace and semi-quiet here in America itself. That would give “progressive forces” 4 years of social pre-violent pre-hostility interlude to prepare themselves for future action or what comes next or whatever else. It would give “survivalist forces” 4 years to prepare for “Survivalism In Place”.

    As to AIPAC removing progressive Democrats from office by money-flooding their carefully vetted primary challengers, there may be a way to punish AIPAC for that now and disincent the DemParty from accepting AIPAC funding of prmary challengers over the medium to long term.

    And that way would be this: that the two people removed in AIPAC primaries would run in those districts as Independent Candidates, or Real Democrats, or Real Progressives, or whatever they would like to call themselves. The point would be to subtract enough votes from the DemParty nominee for those particular elections as to cause the DemParty to lose that seat to the RepParty. If it could be made to work in either ( or best of all both) of those two Congressional elections, then it could be made to work every time AIPAC primaries a not-pro-Israel-enough Congressional officeholder. If that happens enough times and costs the DemParty enough seats, it might cause the DemParty to address the problem of intrusive AIPAC primaries. ( The DemParty still might not address that problem even if AIPAC primary challenge winners caused the DemParty to lose seat after seat after seat. But failure to cost the DemParty seat after seat in punishment for AIPAC primary challenge after AIPAC primary challenge will ensure the DemParty will not have to address this problem).

  24. Dan Kelly

    More substantive information on ‘the lobby’ with active links. Let’s begin with this question:

    “Why did western powers help Israel develop nukes?”

    Israel stole both classified nuclear know-how and nuclear materials from the United States. JFK was adamant that Israel not have nukes, as many have written about. Here is a brief clip of Martin Sandler, the editor of “The Letters of John F. Kennedy” talking about it on C-SPAN in November, 2013:

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4547313/user-clip-jfk-gurion-mossad-dimona

    Here is Grant Smith talking about it in a little more detail back in July of 2010:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWCgSSEiQns

    Haaretz reported on this in April 2016, after more documents were declassified – though still, as seemingly always, heavily redacted:

    https://archive.ph/pWkBE

    Soon after that document release, Grant Smith sued the US government in August of 2016 over foreign aid to Israel because it is obviously a clandestine nuclear power:

    https://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/lawsuit-clandestine-nuclear/

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/lawsuit-claims-us-aid-to-israel-violates-atomic-pact/

    Project Pinto was the Netanyahu-Arnon Milchan smuggling ring that stole nuclear triggers from the US. I bet most Americans would be quite interested in knowing more about this. And talk about a story that would “sell lots of papers” or get a lot of eyeballs to stare at screens. But you won’t see, read or in any way hear about this on any mainstream, nor the vast majority of alternative news organs:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23_44sUKt0g&t=185s

    Jonathan Pollard was one of the most damaging spies in US history according to our own military:

    https://www.military.com/history/jonathan-pollard-was-one-of-most-damaging-spies-us-history.html

    Upon his release, which was protested by many government and intel officials, Pollard flew to Israel where he was warmly welcomed by Netanyahu, who said “You’re home,” reciting a Hebrew blessing of thanks. “What a moment. What a moment.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/29/jonathan-pollard-spy-israel-452235

    ————————————————————————

    https://web.archive.org/web/20231219205238/https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/the-no-state-solution-becomes-more-and-more-real-as-israels-permanent-nakba-continues.html#comment-3970126

    Commenter “Allison” was banned by “Yves Smith” because she said some nasty things, essentially asking to be banned. Too bad, because both she and “Michael Levine” brought much-needed info to the NC commentariat which, for all the good info they provide, sadly never deconstructs things far enough. And NC always descends into silly navel-gazing, though themselves seem totally unaware. Fascinating. But then we all have our blind spots.

    “To add to your comment, lobbying and political bribery by foreign governments is supposed to be held in check by the Foreign Agents Registration Act – FARA – which every other country is held to to at least some degree.

    Obviously, if something is in the interest of “the empire” then exceptions can be made, though they’re usually done quietly. Israel doesn’t have to even pretend to play by any of the rules.

    The ADL isn’t AIPAC (which itself is just one tentacle of this hideous, all-encompassing lobby), but it is an entrenched spy organization operating on behalf of Israel.
    B’nai B”rith should be monitored for activity that is against the interests of the majority of the citizens of the country.

    Instead, all these organizations and their funders are constantly spying on and monitoring everyone else under the sun, to be sure we don’t utter one word that may shed some light on their diabolical nature.

    Most of these powerful Zionist organizations are seen by many as simply “pet Jewish causes.” That is a very big mistake.

    https://archive.ph/Pqt23#selection-2035.1-2047.1

    Notice the archive.ph selection “Allison” linked to is now just the B’nai B’rith homepage, even though the link shows ‘selection’ which means that there was a specific area highlighted for the readers. Since the archive.ph link no longer highlights that specific selection, it means that the selection has been altered by Wikipedia ‘editors.’ It was obviously some facts that powerful Jewish Zionist interests no longer want people to see on Wikipedia. So it’s gone.

    Archive.org can be, and is, ‘scrubbed’ regularly. Archive. ph not so much. Yet.

  25. shagggz

    @Dan Kelly,
    You’ve really piqued my curiosity about this Allison commenter on NC. Do you know what she said to get banned? The archived comments of hers you linked to seem pretty innocuous and did not attract the ire of Yves, but are scrubbed from the extant version of the article. Are you saying all of these were scrubbed because of some personal animus with Yves? I would find that to be quite disturbing and out of character for Yves, who seems generally very scrupulously fairminded.

  26. Dan Kelly

    @shagggz

    “Allison” could be rather impatient and had a tendency to go after some of NC’s regulars. Yves Smith told Allison that she liked many of her comments, but that she has to cool it with her quasi-attacks on other commenters (for not seeing what Allison thought was plainly obvious). Allison then went ballistic, ‘unveiled’ herself, and proceeded to attack “Yves Smith” (Susan Webber) personally – in a very bad way.

    “Michael Levine” was clearly taken to immediately because of the name. Maybe they were hoping for a donation too.

    Both “Yves” and “Lambert Strether” have said all manner of nasty things to people over the years. Yves said “F You” to a commenter. It was a regular commenter who was merely disagreeing – albeit forcefully – with something she said. She then followed it up with, “And you never donate.”

    Remember, bruce wilder was banned from NC. bruce wilder! Although I was pleased to see a “brian wilder” allowed to post recently. Very similar writing styles.

    Again, what Allison said was much more egregious than any of that and if I was “Yves Smith” I probably would have reacted the same way, though I don’t know that I would have erased everything that Allison, Michael Levine and others wrote.

    A pen name is used for a lot of reasons. I don’t think Susan Webber adopted hers simply because she’s worried about retribution for what she writes. It’s so that she can write somewhat ‘outside of herself’ – outside of her birth and environmentally-induced identity.

    Regular NC’er “Fresno Dan” said “F You” to Lambert before signing off for good a few months back. NC posted it.

    Lambert “reads” to me as very pretentious person. He had an exchange with regular “flora” recently where he was essentially dictating to her what she should and shouldn’t be concentrating on (He used a “should” statement on a grown adult, regular commenter!) Flora handled it well, simply restating what she had originally said (which Lambert never heard – “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”) and then ending with “Cheers!”

    Had Allison handled things similarly, she might still be around.

  27. different clue

    I got banned at Naked Capitalism years ago for some reason or another. Hugh decided to leave there because they put him on permanent moderation probation because he was making fun of their MMT hobby-horse in a way that left them feeling very non-validated.

    My personal feeling is that Yves Smith is the person who does the banning over there.

    Blog names are about creativity, not just real-world anonymity. Creative names like Moniker Lewinski, Webster Hubble Telescope, etc.

  28. shagggz

    @Dan Kelly,
    Thanks for that bit of lore! Yes, Yves does at times strike me as a bit harsh but also seems aware of this and tries to keep it in check. Apparently she has a disability which has come with needing to be vocal and standoffish in asserting her rights, so I suspect this is part of that. I think she chose that pen name to counteract the endemic sexism that primes many people to dismiss the ideas being presented. I think the name itself is downright genius, for being a male name that plays on Adam Smith, the folkloric father of capitalism, which sounded like Eve as in counterpart to the biblical Adam. Love me a multilayered pun! As for Lambert, I cannot disagree that he strikes me as the pretentious type, though benignly so and seemingly pretty humble generally.

    I’m still left with the question of Allison’s apparently innocuous comments being deleted. Was there a blanket scrubbing of her posts sitewide, due to the ban? That would seem very petty indeed.

  29. Dan Kelly

    Was there a blanket scrubbing of her posts sitewide, due to the ban?

    Yes there was.

    I obviously read NakedCapitalism regularly, thus it would be a grand understatement to say that I’d be remiss if I didn’t give the site, its owners, editors, writers and commentariat at least some bit of credit for what they do. Right, Mr Armchair Warrior Critic?

    Indeed. Since not everyone is in fact going to “Get Your Own Damn Blog” and since that would just further serve to atomize people who are supposed to be ‘in solidarity’ anyway, it is in fact incumbent upon angry commenters and established blogs alike to communicate more effectively. Novel and earth-shattering, I know.

    Anyhow, in the interest of Ian’s recent “All We Have is Each Other” I’d like to thank Yves, Lambert and everyone at NC for all the work they do.

    Yves was featured in the New York Intelligencer in August 2018. I’m glad she pounded home the economic argument to that audience. She ‘reads’ as someone who cares. Because she does. She’s smarter than I could ever hope to be and I imagine she could have made a lot more money had she decided to turn a blind eye to the goings-on around her. She’s not alone in that, but it does seem to be somewhat rare.

    Susan Webber looks really pretty in this picture, I think it’s from her appearance on Bill Moyers, as it has the PBS logo on it.

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/yves-smith-on-why-we-didnt-see-the-2008-crash-coming.html

  30. Dan Kelly

    @shagggz

    I responded to you but my response hasn’t posted. The answer to your question is yes, all of Allison’s comments do seem to have been deleted. Again though, Allison’s statements that led to the banning were not innocuous.

    The rest of my post was praise for Yves and Naked Capitalism, a site I’m on regularly. I linked to Yves Smith’s interview in the New York Intelligencer back in 2018.

    ——————————————————————

    I’m 51 years old and I grew up – and currently live in – New Jersey. NJ’s paper for decades was called “The Star Ledger” and, while it was a mainstream US newspaper that obviously adhered to the US establishment line (no Marxist or left or such writers), it nevertheless had in-depth reporting on local and national issues done by good writers. An excellent sports section, including Jerry Izenberg who until quite recently was one of just a handful of writers who had attended and reported from every SuperBowl since the fist one.

    The Star Ledger is now NJ.com (Advance Media) and to say it is a shell of its former self doesn’t do the original any justice. The NY Times and Washington Post are essentially unreadable. You can go to all the major papers,, LA Times, the Chicago papers, Miami Herald – they’re all the same. The Boston Globe seems to have an inkling of better reporting.

    How many substack writers is a person supposed to subscribe to?

  31. Ian Welsh

    Unless it’s been 24 hours, one shouldn’t assume one’s comment hasn’t been let thru. I’m often AFK for long periods. Right now Sean-Paul is approving comments, but only on his posts, so you can see an earlier comment go thru while an older one doesn’t.

    Usually only ad-homs or serious racism and so on aren’t let thru.

  32. shagggz

    @Dan Kelly,

    After you make a post, it’ll say underneath it that it’s currently awaiting moderation. But I appreciate you reposting it! Yeah, the blanket removal of Allison’s posts does seem odd, but for all I know it’s more due to a quirk of how the comments software works than Yves’ personal pettiness. Regardless, I have zero doubt in my mind that she could’ve made at least ten times the money she makes from running NC, but is emotionally intelligent enough to see what is more important in life.

    I am not the reverent type generally, but I basically worship her. More recently, Ian too. Intellectual and moral giants. I’ve been an info junkie since 2010 when I got wise to RSS and how to use it, and that has only deepened over time. Since then, my keeping track of mainstream sources has dwindled as their true nature of being bullhorns for the fourth reich (not a term I use ironically or lightly) has dawned on me.

    NC and Ian’s blog take up the majority of my time and are the only ones I make sure to read all of the comments (only doable for the latter, given the sheer volume of the former) and it will seriously fuck me up when either of them are no longer around. I find both publications and commentariats to be fiercely intellectually honest, which make the few sources of friction between them that I’ve seen all the more tantalizing to me…

    Does Mr. Welsh have a backstory of any involvement there, for instance? God, I could read about this stuff for hours… please forgive the gushy swooning… *blushes*

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