On Brexit and Democracy: Response to Emma Bell

Emma Bell makes a number of salient points in her paper: it is true that the Brexit referendum was far from being a model of democratic practice; that referenda in general are more problematic than their supporters seem to understand; and that the level of debate in this referendum was infantile. However, there are also a number of matters of importance with which she does not deal and others to which she refers but does not properly address.

Capitalism Unhinged: Crisis of Legitimacy in the United States*

I recall that in the first classroom lecture I gave, in September 1968, I referred to capitalism as being in crisis. I have never stopped saying this, year after year.

But doesn’t such repetition vitiate the meaning of “crisis”? How can a crisis be more than a transitory episode? If the condition is chronic, are we not then speaking no longer of a historically specific moment but rather of an enduring structure?

Korean War Biological Warfare Update

Korean partition was created in 1945 by a USSR/US military accord by which jurisdiction of the peninsula was divided roughly in half between the Soviet and US occupation armies at the 38th Parallel. Three and a half decades of Japanese colonial rule (1910-45) had left a power vacuum in Korea. Eventually, separate hostile governments with bellicose armies were established to promote socialism in the north and market capitalism in the south.

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