7 thoughts on “Trump is right the Russians did not affect the outcome of the US elections.”

1. Hi Ogbeni,

   Global capitalism is in deepening crisis. Trump, though a wild-card, is the present face of his class in the US in their attempt to address that crisis. What to do? Hitler blamed the Jews for the post WWI crisis of German capitalism, the most powerful sections of Trump’s class also increasingly blames – Russia, the media, minorities, anyone who opposes them, etc. for their inability to resolve their crisis. They have set the gold standard for interfering in the affairs of other countries.
   Trump, a free-wheeling liar, can say some surprisingly ‘reasonable’ things. Remember in an election debate with Clinton, while she was waving the flag he said ‘Wouldn’t it be good if we could get along with the Russians?’ But he also has strong and murky business relations with Russia which will be dug out with time.
   Socialism, once declared dead by academic hookers and hacks, is once again gaining support in both the US and the UK. In the UK what does the British capitalist class do? Plan to send 2 aircraft carriers (after discussions with their masters the US capitalist class) into the South China Sea.
   To uphold ‘the rule of law’? Of course not – this is the class that started the Opium Wars. They intend to do so to try to suppress with flag-waving nationalism (just as Thatcher used the Falklands War) the growing support for socialism in the UK.
   The issue is not fundamentally Trump. It is not the Russians. And it is not the Chinese. It is the crisis of capitalism. And it is the relation between classes in capitalist societies.
   I have never doubted that capitalism (like feudalism) will pass. The only question is when and by what circumstances.
   Phil

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   • Thank you sir!

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   • Thank you Phil

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   • Thank you Phil, may you live long with wisdom. Ogbeni

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     • Thank you, Ogbeni and best wishes to you all. Phil

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   • Peace Phil,

     I posted your comment on my Facebook page and here are a couple of interesting comments I got.

     Tony Cohen, Mysticism is the tool of tyrants

     Tokunbo Oke, Fundamentally, I do not disagree with anything he has said. The only thing he misses out is that Trump was not the preferred candidate for the 1% in the US. His lopsided attempts to get the 1% on side of his agenda is aggravating the crisis of Capitalism. His reliance on lumpen bourgeois elements like Anthony Scaramucci can only make matters worse…..

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     • Hello Ogbeni,
       thank you for posting my comment on your Facebook page and for sharing a couple of the comments with me – I appreciate that. As a materialist, I obviously don’t subscribe to mysticism, I subscribe to the truth – to say of what is that it is. The origin of materialist dialectics is mystical (particularly Neoplatonic) philosophy which Marx stood right way up – on its material feet.
       I firmly believe that materialist dialectics are the epistemological way forward but that they need to be further developed (just as Marx and Engels developed materialism from mechanical to dialectical). To do so, first their origins need to be acknowledged and understood and then the whole course of their development needs to be reviewed – in order to address the shortcomings of Marx’s epistemology.
       In response to the second comment I agree that Trump has many enemies in the 1% – because he is exposing them, their real nature – he is ‘gloves off’. I would make the point again that personalities are used to distract from the fundamentals – class, class domination and class exploitation. I am by no means the first to write that ‘the times’ summon forth the leaders, not the other way round. Political leaders are reflections of dynamic class relations and to focus on them at the expense of losing focus on how those class relations are playing out overall is a prime ploy of the capitalist media. In Orwell’s 1984 Goldstein was the enemy of the state and the threat to ‘peace’ and ‘stability’. While your attention is being focused on what individuals do, it is being distracted from the ‘big picture’ – the relations between the classes comprising your society. From that perspective, Trump and his team of thugs are doing something very important and dangerous for their class’s long-term interests, because they, in their aggression and brutality, have put class relations centre-stage – not only in the US but, because of the significance of the US, in the West generally.
       Best wishes, Phil

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