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Yet Another NATO Punch-and-Judy Show

Every couple of years, the media treat us to the spectacle of an intramural fight within NATO. France--it's usually France--declares that it wants NATO member-states to contribute more funds to NATO (even more perhaps than the Americans are demanding). Why? Because, apparently, the Americans are losing interest in Europe and are fixated on something else. Today's it's China. A few years back it was the Middle East. Before that it was the Persian Gulf. Before that it was Central America. Before that it was Latin America. Therefore, says France--yes, it's usually France--the Europeans need to step up to the plate and impose a European dimension to NATO.

That's when it gets a little tricky. What exactly does France--yes, it's usually France--intend to do that NATO is not already doing? French leaders scratch their heads and ponder. Ah, they cry, what about Afghanistan? The Americans want to pull out and they didn't even inform us about it! OK, so the French want to stay on in Afghanistan?

OK, not a good suggestion. What about Africa? Ah, now we are on to something. That brings back memories of happier days: France's African colonies, not to mention the grandiose Francophone visions of de Gaulle, as well as the French military interventions in Africa during the 1970s under Giscard d'Estaing. And, sure enough, the French defense minister brings up intervention in the Sahel as the model for future European NATO interventions. I am sure everyone in Europe will be thrilled at the prospect, particularly as the reason for this intervention in the first place was the French-inspired NATO onslaught on Libya.

France wishes to continue to the great NATO tradition of using armed force to solve crises that it had itself created.

https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-summit-france-europe-florence-parly-defense/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1622537447

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The screening starts at 4 p.m. ET sharp.
Share all of your thoughts, comments and criticisms on the Live Chat.

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More Leftie Than Thou
"Jacobin" Magazine Celebrates A Strike Against Ol' Blue Eyes

Here at "The Gaggle" we have very little time for the "more Leftie than thou" school of thought--that's the approach to life according to which the only thing that matters is whether you take the right position on every issue under the sun from Abortion to Zelensky. No one in the world meets the exacting standards of this school of thought; any Leftie leader anywhere is always selling out to the bankers and the capitalists. The perfect exemplar of this is the unreadable Jacobin magazine. 

The other day I came across this article from 2021. It's a celebration of trade union power. And not simply trade union power, but the use of trade union power to secure political goals. Of course (and this is always the case with the "more Leftie than thou" crowd), this glorious, never-to-be-forgotten moment on the history of organized labor took place many years ago--in the summer of 1974 to be exact. Yes, almost half a century has gone by since that thrilling moment when the working-class movement of Australia mobilized and prepared to seize the means of production, distribution and exchange. 

Well, not quite. Organized labor went into action against...Ol' Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, the Voice; yes, Frank Sinatra. Why? What had Sinatra done? Sinatra was certainly very rich, and he owned a variety of properties and businesses. But if the Australian trade union movement were, understandably, searching for the bright, incandescent spark that would finally awaken the working class from its slumber there were surely richer, greedier, more dishonest, more decadent, above all more Australian individuals it could have discovered. Australia was never short of them. Rupert Murdoch immediately springs to mind. Why Sinatra?

 

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