Quick Hits - Robot Soldiers, Bad Journalism, & 'Socialist' Union-Busting
Michael Sheetz, a real grown adult who is paid well to do journalism for CNBC this week posted on Twitter a glowing message about a robot being developed by a company called Boston Dynamics. “At the rate the Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots are progressing, I would not be surprised to see them on NASA’s upcoming moon missions,” Sheetz gushed.
It takes either a truly unwise person or a committed propagandist to think this robot - which is being produced through funding and supervision from the United States Department of Defense - will be used in outer space before it's used to brutalize Brown, Black, Yellow, and indigenous people around the world.
On the topic of responsible, clear-headed corporate journalism from those who would have you believe they are progressive-minded, NBC journalist Noah Rothman recently expressed disgust and disbelief at the Biden administration’s recent milquetoast stated opposition to permanently occupying nations in the near-East/Central Asia.
“Holy lord. The national security advisor just rejected the premise that we need a permanent military presence near Pakistan and Iran.”
The exchange Rothman referred to was US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan answering a reporter’s question at a recent presser. The question was as follows:
“President Biden said that there are very few national security for the United States in maintaining some peace in Afghanistan…would you say that there is no interest in us having some presence on the borders of Iran, on the borders of Pakistan, on the borders of near China? Tajikistan? Would you say that we should just give that up?”
Sullivan’s answer was “I would say that the President does not believe that the United States should not be fighting and dying in a war for the purpose of sustaining American boots near Tajikistan, or Pakistan, or Iran, no.” In what passes for rare sanity in Sullivan and the US empire’s case, the administration official at least correctly pointed out the surface-level absurdity of the implied premise of the reporter’s question, though with the expected American chauvinistic perspective.
Not said, of course, was how the US has killed hundreds of thousands of mostly women and children in Afghanistan in the past 20 years alone, and how continuing to do so is morally indefensible. Still, even this self-centered and reasonable stance from the administration was too far gone for Rothman.
This truly typifies liberal American journalism - an elite reporter aghast at the notion that we don’t possess a divine right to permanently subjugate other nations of people (and sacrifice thousands of our own from mostly the lower-classes of the US) in order to hold the specter of terror over their neighbors.
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On Wednesday a letter signed by former staff of Current Affairs magazine was released that claims they “were fired by the editor-in-chief of [the] socialist magazine for trying to start a worker co-op.” We will return to this important news in coming columns but for now wanted to simply draw your attention to the development and claims.
Thus far, the editor-in-chief, Nathan Robinson has not made a public statement and indeed hasn’t sent out messages of any kind on Twitter, where he is usually quite active, for nearly a week. The letter from former staff left contact information for readers who might be interested in communicating with them further.
“If you want to stand in solidarity with us, please consider sharing this news, emailing messages of support to past.affairs2021@gmail.com, and adding yourself to our mailing list to hear about any new projects. We thank you so much for your attention and affection over the years.”
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In a soon-coming column we will address a disturbing series of racist actions and words from prominent White American so-called progressives and Leftist journalists and politicians against Black analysts and activists from The Fred Hampton Leftists network. Looking ahead to that column, here are some pertinent quotes from Robert F. Williams and Martin Luther King Jr. that will be used in the piece.
“I am not afraid of alienating white friends of our liberation movement. If they really believe in freedom they will not resent deviation from the old worn path that has led us in fruitless circles (tactics). If they are insincere they are no more than Trojan horses infiltrating our ranks to strike us a treacherous, nefarious blow on behalf of those and that which they pretend to detest. For if they resent our becoming truly liberated, they will detest us for not following their misguidance (tactics) and skillful subterfuge designed to prevent our arrival to the promised land. They speak much of tolerance, but they display unlimited intolerance (getting kicked out) toward those Afro-Americans who refuse to become their puppets and yes-man Uncle Toms.” - Robert F Williams
“I hear a lot of talk these days about our direct action talk alienating former friends,” he added. “I would rather feel they are bringing to the surface latent prejudices that are already there. If our direct action programs alienate our friends … they never were really our friends.” - Martin Luther King Jr.