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99 - Lessons From Syriza & Beating Anti-Bernie Bias ft. Krystal Ball & Joshua Kahn (Patreon)

Published:
2019-07-23 22:59:10
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2026-06
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Follow The Michael Brooks Show and crew on twitter: @TMBSfm @_michaelbrooks @mattlech @davidgriscom @davidslavick

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TMBS - 99 - Lessons From Syriza & Beating Anti-Bernie Bias ft. Krystal Ball & Joshua Kahn

This is the free weekly edition of TMBS. To support the Michael Brooks Show on Patreon and receive hours of weekly members-only content, subscribe at Patreon.com/tmbs Follow The Michael Brooks Show and crew on twitter: @TMBSfm @_michaelbrooks @mattlech @davidgriscom @davidslavick Come see us in Chicago: http://www.lh-st.com/Shows/08-24-2019+The+Michael+Brooks+Show 7:22 What lessons can we learn from the experience of Syriza? 18:57 Shoutout to the protests in Puerto Rico and the full context 29:00 Krystal Ball (@KrystalBall) co-host of Rising on Hill.TV calls in to talk about anti-Bernie media bias and how to beat it. 52:18 During the GEM, David breaks down how gig economy corporations rob workers and then silence them. 1:08 Joshua Khan executive director of The Wildfire Project joins us to talk about organizing tactics and direct action.

Comments

Jon Spiegler

Flashback to taking pills during the day and watching The Cycle

Bijou Smith

Syriza and Varoufakis: must read for Lefties is "Adults in the Room". I doubt it was a risk to go with Varoufakis' proposals (in midst of default crisis he had an ingenious proposal to use tax credits as a kind of interim Greek sovereign currency while they were firing up their Drachma reboot in anticipation of a monetary Grexit). Argentina defaulted on it's foreign debt in 2001, then implemented a job guarantee--lite scheme and recovered for a time until neoliberal elites took back power. Greece could have done the same and would be in good shape toady if they had (minus the neoliberal return). Banks threaten sovereign nations when a debt default is proposed, but truth is financial investors do not give a sh_t about debt defaults, they will loan you money no matter what to collect interest. They said they'd never deal with Argentina again, a few months after the debt default it was business as usual for foreign investors. The Greeks (especially Syriza leadership) were too myopic to see this, to look back at recent history in another part of the world, pay heed to international solidarity, and see the just path forward. Syriza were fake socialists, totally into the game for power and prestige. They conned Varoufakis to give themselves a scapegoat. It was a modern Greek tragedy, and you'll see one of epic proportions if you study it closely (Brooksy mentioned the suicides), there will be generations now born into poverty if the Greeks do not default on their debts. People need to realise, these debts are only in part due to business corruption, most of it is lack of control over their currency. Under such circumstances the entity giving out billion dollar loans is the criminal, not the party taking the loan. Also, the entities receiving the loans were not the Greek people directly, it was their corrupt financiers. So that for starters doomed the bailouts. Puritans and protestants always think the borrower who cannot repay is the "sinful", whereas it is equally the lender who is extracting rent and profit from the debt who is just as "evil" -- and was traditionally thought so in many cultures. A good read on this is David Graeber's anthropology, "Debt: The First 5000 Years". In my view, if you can afford to give someone money, then do it, there is no need to demand repayment, this is especially true if you have monopoly control of issuing currency like the ECB because then you truly can always afford to give without demanding it be a loan, provided it is non-inflationary currency injection (which in Greece it would be, debt cancellation is never inflationary, it merely gets an economy back to heads above water with a one time marginal jump in prices while supply adjusts to match increased demand, i.e., an adjustment, not an inflation). In Greece it is definitely not the Greek people who are at fault, not one iota, it is the oligarchs and the Troika who are wreaking havoc and visiting horrific suffering and economic anxiety upon the Greek people (who, I've heard, are more productive per person than the British, contrary to popular stereotypes).

Bijou Smith

On Bernard's media strategy, one thing Krystal and Brooksy omit, which I think is incredibly important, is the hidden Ace they hold, Stephanie Kelton, who is constantly lecturing and talking on alt media about how taxes are not revenues: taxes do not fund government spending, they cannot, they drain bank reserves which then the Treasury/Fed must see to being topped up. The Fed/Treasury deficit is the only thing that truly allows (in fact, more correctly "shows" since the deficit is merely an accounting number) governments to net spend into the economy. So if Bernie can learn to stop the bullsh_t about "taxes paying for" M4A and a GND, he will be in much better shape. Taxes scare the middle class, and besides that, taxes on wages are completely pointless and regressive, you tax to limit inflation, which means you only need to tax wasteful and harmful financial activity, and that's (typically) not wage earners. Bottom line: taxes cannot ever "pay for" M4A and free college and GND infrastructure and a Job Guarantee. It all must be deficit spending. If Bernard cannot admit this he is shooting himself in the head.