[Xmca-l] Re: As of 2020, the American Century is Over

[Andy Blunden]

Anthony, I mainly rely on the ABC (the Australian 
Broadcasting Corporation), widely accepted as the most 
trusted source of news and analysis in Australia, run by 
professional journalists, and independent of Rupert Murdoch. 
The NYT has a pay wall and CNN is not available here.

As Alfredo notes, it is no news to anyone here that reality 
is in the eye of the beholder, and the world's experience 
with the tolerance of Americans for Trump is the greatest 
evidence of this truism one could ask for.

My perceptions are conditioned by living in a country which 
had its first cases about the same time as America and we 
were in an exponential rise doubling every 3.5 days, like 
New York, in early March, but wonder or wonders our Prime 
Minister, who is one of the handful of Trump-admirers in 
Australian politics - changed!! Apart from some rather 
vindicative exclusions of foreign workers and casuals from 
the economic survival package, he has given ideal 
leadership, possibly because he immediately created a new 
body called the "National Cabinet" which included all the 
state Premiers (majority Labor) and collaborated with 
stakeholders rather than legislating or issuing orders. All 
decisions have been made collaboratively and in public. The 
result was that trust in government has been magically 
restored and we are down to *single figures* of new cases 
per day. Our hospitals are quiet places.

It is an open question whether Scott Morrison will "win" the 
next election; that will depend on how he acts as 
restrictions are lifted, I imagine, but that is absolutely 
the last criterion on which he will be judged by the 
Australian people and history. (c.f. Winston Churchill).

When I have made errors in judgment over the past months, it 
has always been my consistent underestimation of the 
tolerance of Americans for lies and stupidity. But that will 
not stop me from continuing to make the same mistake and 
remaining optimistic for the future. Though I agree with 
Mike: there will be suffering.

Andy

------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Hegel for Social Movements <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!UdbPxUu2xrRvkqJFMkhqvGcbnH0KIgpgfOlvzVVzRHnIO0tF08x45tk0WNZyheKsosRa4Q$ >
Home Page <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!UdbPxUu2xrRvkqJFMkhqvGcbnH0KIgpgfOlvzVVzRHnIO0tF08x45tk0WNZyheIJtVMF7w$ >
On 23/04/2020 4:02 am, Anthony Barra wrote:
> Andy,
>
> Unless someone beats me to it, I will annotate this 
> article when time allows -- not as a fact-check or 
> correction, but from an occluded view.
>
> Thank you for writing it; it is an excellent answer to the 
> question, "what might the view from abroad look like, if 
> reliant primarily on the /New York Times/ and /CNN?/" 
> (i.e., similar to the view domestically, under same 
> conditions)
>
> This is not an insult nor critique -- as you know from our 
> offline exchanges. It just is what it is; I have my blind 
> spots too (we are all human).
>
> Cheers ~
> Anthony
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 7:33 AM Andy Blunden 
> <andyb@marxists.org <mailto:andyb@marxists.org>> wrote:
>
>     https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/pdfs/American-Century.pdf__;!!Mih3wA!UdbPxUu2xrRvkqJFMkhqvGcbnH0KIgpgfOlvzVVzRHnIO0tF08x45tk0WNZyheIxtoxuHw$ 
>     [ethicalpolitics.org]
>     <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/pdfs/American-Century.pdf__;!!Mih3wA!RX_kT308fV5J979vU0HnZwn3N_ILxa76WV811I3K7Q1lByCHw_H-2IpA6g71m_ZdQvTjgA$>
>
>     Andy
>
>     -- 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     *Andy Blunden*
>     Hegel for Social Movements [brill.com]
>     <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!RX_kT308fV5J979vU0HnZwn3N_ILxa76WV811I3K7Q1lByCHw_H-2IpA6g71m_bmjhN_kw$>
>     Home Page [ethicalpolitics.org]
>     <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!RX_kT308fV5J979vU0HnZwn3N_ILxa76WV811I3K7Q1lByCHw_H-2IpA6g71m_aKuyy5Zw$>
>
>
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