Taylor Swift’s extraordinary courage and correct thinking: Ultimately, Swift decided to go through with the statement. “This was a situation where, from a humanity perspective, and from what my moral compass was telling me I needed to do, I knew was right, and I really didn’t care about repercussions,” she told Vanity Fair. “My dad is terrified of threats against my safety and my life, and he has to see how many stalkers we deal with on a daily basis, and know that this is his kid. It’s where he comes from.”

https://l.smartnews.com/p-wtCn1/Vl6Rsr

Republican Romney agrees with Trumpy’s domestic policy

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Wednesday night that there’s no chance he’d vote for Donald Trump in November’s election.

“No, no, no, absolutely not,” he said when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if he could cast a ballot for the former president.

He said he considers both policy and character when choosing “the person who is the example of the president for my kids and my grandkids.”

Trump’s a mixed bag on policy: Though Romney agrees with much of the former president’s domestic agenda, he said he disagrees with him on foreign policy.

So, since the class struggle is between members of the same species, it does not derive from the Darwinian struggle for existence , which is not mainly within the same species. Another aspect of this is seen from the fact that the exploited working classes in history reproduce at higher rates than the rich ruling classes . So, though the rich win the class struggle , the poor win the Darwinian reproductive struggle- the rich get richer and the poor get children.

Marxism and Darwinism

by Charles Brown Comments on Ian Argus’s article on unity of Marxism and Darwinism ; Issue 65 ISR

https://isreview.org/issue/65/marx-and-engelsand-darwin/index.html

When Marx read Origin a year later, he was just as enthusiastic, calling it “the book which contains the basis in natural history for our view.”2 In a letter to the German socialist Ferdinand Lasalle, he wrote:

Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle… Despite all shortcomings, it is here that, for the first time, “teleology” in natural science is not only dealt a mortal blow but its rational meaning is empirically explained.3

Charles Brown However , the Darwinian struggle for existence is not directly between members of the same species ; but the class struggle is . The Darwinian struggle for existence is a struggle for individual survival - get enough to eat , not get eaten , not freeze or overheat to death , not fall out of a tree . Very rarely is this a conflict between members of the same species .

/ “ After five years of scientific research on the Beagle and two more years of study at home, Darwin came to a heretical conclusion: species were not immutable. All animals were descended from common ancestors, different species resulted from gradual changes over millions of years, and God had nothing to do with it.

It is difficult, today, to appreciate just how shocking this idea would be to the middle and upper classes of Darwin’s time. Religion wasn’t just the “opium of the masses”—it gave the wealthy moral justification for their privileged lives in a world of constant change and gross inequality.”

Natural selection In Origin, Darwin argued that three factors combine to create new species: population pressure, variation and inheritance, and natural selection.

1) Population pressure: All organisms tend to have more offspring than can survive in the local environment. Many individuals either do not survive or are not able to reproduce.

CB : Yes , however , all organisms are mortal . All of them eventually don’t survive in the local environment. The simpler way of describing the distinction between fit and unfit , selected for and against, is between those who _reproduce and those who don’t reproduce_. Those who die before reproducing and , therefore do not pass on their genotype, unfit , and those who pass on their genotype ( or approximately half of it ), fit.

(I know the above language is from Darwin. Frankly , I have a hypothesis that Darwin new this formulation was off for really describing his theory , but was allying /appealing to Malthus in Darwin’s political struggle with the religious powers-that-be ; in other words , Darwin was using an idea similar to the _parson_ Malthus’ idea on overpopulation ; he was using Malthus for religious cover. )

At any rate, my point here ( and please argue against it , if you would ) is that most of the struggle for existence, to survive long enough to reproduce does not occur _ directly between_two animals of the same species ( using modern definition of “species”, two organisms of opposite sexes able to mate and produce fertile offspring) . It is not struggle, for example , between two tigers over the same dead prey , one trying to take it from the other . Rather , it is success or failure of the predator or prey in the struggle for existence between them - the prey escaping and surviving , and the predator starving ; or the predator surviving and prey dying .

Times of extreme scarcity would produce intra-species struggles ; I’m thinking these are rare in a species’s history.

So, since the class struggle is between members of the same species, it does not derive from the Darwinian struggle for existence , which is not mainly within the same species. Another aspect of this is seen from the fact that the exploited working classes in history reproduce at higher rates than the rich ruling classes . So, though the rich win the class struggle , the poor win the Darwinian reproductive struggle- the rich get richer and the poor get children.

Comrade Herbert Aptheker was Comrade W.E.B. Dubois’s literary executor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacy

_Fox News_ calls Republicans in Congress Keystone Cops

Grand Old Party dividing itself making itself more easily conquered by masses of voters

Former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), now running for the U.S. Senate, issued this decree during a Trump watch party in Grand Rapids, Michigan on election night Tuesday, reports NBC. While in mid-sentence a crowd member blurted out: "You impeached Trump!" Meijer responded with a comeback, according to NBC News' Sarah Dean. "I did, because Jan. 6th was bad," he reportedly said. "And you know what? I think we would’ve had better victories in November of ’22 had we not [gone down] that path." Meijer, a Columbia University alum who also toured in Afghanistan voted in favor of Trump's impeachment in 2019 and 2021. After Jan. 6, 2021, he said: "The one man who could have restored order, prevented the deaths of five Americans including a Capitol police officer, and avoided the desecration of our Capitol, shrank from leadership when our country needed it most." Dean reported that when the same man attempted to interrupt again, Meijer tried to explain that different opinions should not stop Republicans from unifying behind the Republican nominee and against Democrats. "We cannot let them be the victors in this civil war," he said.

Ghana's parliament has passed a tough new bill that imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as LGBTQ+.

It also imposes a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.

Lawmakers heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling.

It is the latest sign of growing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in the prigressive West African nation.

The bill, which had the backing of Ghana's two major political parties, will come into effect only if President Nana Akufo-Addo signs it into law.

He previously said that he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to.

Gay sex is already against the law in Ghana - it carries a three-year prison sentence.

Activists fear there will now be witch-hunts against members of the LGBTQ+ community and those who campaign for their rights, and say some will have to go into hiding.

The bill proposes a jail term of up to 10 years for anyone involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns aimed at children

For Black History Month I celebrate my Comrade Freedom Fighter Dave Moore : “ Carry On”

Convicted rapist and criminally indicted Donald Trump made the outrageous assertion last weekend that his support among African Americans has grown as a result of his mugshot appearing in public and the four criminal charges he faces.

He said there are strong similarities between the alleged “persecution of Trump” and the legacy of discrimination against Black people in the U.S. legal system.

The remarks followed his announcement of sales of a new line of gold MAGA sneakers which he and numerous Fox and other right-wing pundits claim also appeal to Black Americans.

Lately, Trump has been regularly talking about the alleged increase in his levels of support among Black voters before audiences populated by his racist white backers. Many of those in the crowds who believe Trump’s latest racist garbage are victims of the brainwashing that is part of the racist infrastructure of U.S. society. They make up a core part of his extreme right-wing base.

truggling to expand beyond the base

Try as he might, though, Trump cannot ignore that in all the Republican contests so far, about 40% of GOP primarygoers voted against him. And polls show that at least one in five Republicans nationally have said they will never vote for Trump. In the latest South Carolina GOP primary, he garnered 59.5% of the vote, a disastrous showing for someone running essentially as an incumbent president.

The New York Times and other papers that heralded his “huge victory” there failed to note that the results show that, unless he expands beyond his extreme right-wing base, he will lose the election to Biden in November.

The only thing that can kill Biden’s push for re-election at this time would be his own administration’s refusal to reverse its policy of total support to the Israeli war on Gaza. Despite remarks by the president that he will support some type of temporary ceasefire, thus far, the arms Israel gets to carry out genocide in Gaza continue to be provided by the Biden administration.

Black and young voters, along with Arab Americans, are at the forefront of the opposition to Biden’s policy and are strong in key battleground states like Michigan. It is issues like Gaza and the economy that are top of mind for many of these voters, contrary to whatever Trump might be claiming.

In addition to his heightened appeals to racism, Trump is stirring up more and more hatred against immigrants, in hopes of growing his support that way. But the anti-immigrant rhetoric has not prevented even the very conservative 40% of Republican voters in primaries thus far from voting against him.

Also, his support for a 16-week national abortion ban is not convincing women to forget that by installing right-wingers on the Supreme Court in his first administration, Trump became the author of the destruction of Roe.

A long history of racism

“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump told attendees of the Black Conservative Federation’s gala in Columbia, S.C., ahead of the state’s primary. “And a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against.”

Trump talked about the mug shot taken in Georgia after he was indicted for trying to steal the election in that state. “When I did the mug shot in Atlanta, that mug shot is No. 1,” he said, adding: “You know who embraced it more than anyone else? The Black population.”

First, there is absolutely no evidence that anyone in the Black community has embraced his mug shot. Second, there is no evidence of any meaningful increase in Black support for Trump, certainly not the type of increase he talks about.

Trump has a long history of racism. From his earliest days as a New York real estate developer, Trump has carried out racist practices in dealing with both contractors and tenants.

In 1989, he took out full-page newspaper ads calling for New York State to reinstate the death penalty as five Black and Latino teenagers were set to stand trial for allegedly beating and raping a white woman in Central Park. The men were exonerated in 2002 after another man admitted to the crime and it was determined their confessions were the result of police torture.

Ahead of the 2008 election, Trump spread the lie that Obama was ineligible to hold office.

When he was president, Trump attacked “shithole countries” in Africa and said four congressional representatives, all women of color, should go back to the “broken and crime-infested” countries they came from, ignoring the fact that all of the women were U.S. citizens and three were born in the U.S.
' Infused racist jokes into speech

At the black-tie fundraiser in South Carolina, Trump was joined on stage by Republican Black elected officials, including Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas. Many in the crowd cheered throughout the speech.

Trump peddles golden MAGA sneakers at Philadelphia’s Sneaker Con. He said that his golden shoes, priced at $399 per pair, will make him popular with young Black voters. | AP But even before an audience of Black conservatives, Trump could not help infusing racist jokes and other outrageous remarks into his speech.

“The lights are so bright in my eyes I can’t see too many people out there. But I can only see the Black ones. I can’t see any white ones. That’s how far I’ve come,” Trump said to laughter from the audience.

He also said that he knew many Black people because his properties were built by Black construction workers.

In telling a story about how he allegedly lowered prices the government had to pay for Air Force One, Trump criticized his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, the first Black person to be elected to the White House.

“I have to tell you, Black president, but I got $1.7 billion less,” Trump said. “Would you rather have the Black president or the white president who got $1.7 billion off the price?”

As the crowd cheered, he added, “I think they want the white guy.”

Democrats blasted the speech, with former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign, saying that “Donald Trump claiming that Black Americans will support him because of his criminal charges is insulting. It’s moronic. And it’s just plain racist.”

“He thinks Black voters are so uninformed that we won’t see through his shameless pandering,” Richmond said in a statement. “He has another thing coming.”

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