Hey Maureen Dowd Instead of Macbeth, how-bout Henry V:

The men of wealth that do no work to-day!

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
We band of brothers that protested in the streets today 

-My version of the St Crispin's Day Speech in Shakespeare’s Henry V, brought up to date. 



The real heroes of today are ordinary people protesting capitalism in the streets.

Wall Street capitalists hitched a wild ride on Trump's African tin pot dictatorship (*see Trevor Noah below) 

The next few years could either bring a rebirth of democracy to the United States or end democracy in the United States. How will you be remembered?

“WASHINGTON — Macbeth has his doubts.

But his wife taunts him about his manliness until he bloodies his country.

It’s hard to believe, four centuries after Shakespeare, that the fear of being unmanned is still so potent that it could wreck a country.

But it is. And it has.

Donald Trump’s warped view of masculinity has warped this nation’s response to a deadly pandemic. And Trump doesn’t even have a diabolical Lady MacTrump whispering in his ear, goading him about being a man. He goads himself, fueled by ghostly memories of his autocratic father.”

MORE AT:

Double, Double, Trump’s Toil, Our Trouble

Demon sperm meets alien D.N.A., as President Trump teeters.

By Maureen Dowd Aug. 1, 2020

The Opposite of “black Lives Matter” IS NOT “Blue Lives Matter.” The opposite of “Black Lives Matter” is BILLIONAIRES LIVES AND ONLY BILLIONAIRES LIVES MATTER

Black people and by extension all poor & middle class people gaining real political power is a direct threat to capitalism & the .1% wealthy. Police attacks on Black Lives Matter protesters will continue after Trump is out of power. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the global protests against racism triggered by George Floyd’s death reflect a period of worldwide turmoil.  

#DemocracyNow

Noam Chomsky: Under Trump's tinpot dictatorship, corporate power rules all:

Trevor Noah compares Donald Trump to an African dictator:

"The COVID-19 pandemic and the global protests agains racism triggered by George Floyd’s death reflect a period of worldwide turmoil. People around the globe are anxious and angry and call for change. Adding the steeply increasing awareness of the climate crisis over the past year to this (remember Greta Thunberg) suggests that something is going on—a transition perhaps.

Particularly, these developments question the viability of the capitalist system that has emerged over the past two centuries. Rather than seeking only for economic prosperity and value deals, people seem to increasingly seek for purpose, fairness and responsibility. Along those lines, companies, governments and leaders aren’t merely judged anymore based on their economic merits, but also and especially on their moral stance and behavior.

Of course, people have never completely forgotten about this and moral, purpose, fairness and responsibility have always played a role in the capitalist system. But it seems the balance is shifting. And this may bring us back to the kind of capitalist system that Adam Smith originally anticipated.

Adam Smith’s 18th Century Ideas

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was an 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher and political economist. He is well known for his book The Wealth of Nations (1776) in which he lays out the basic principles of capitalism—pursuit of self-interest, specialization of work, competition and exchange through the “invisible hand” of the market rather than by some top-down “visible hand” of government. Accordingly, Smith is often called the “father of capitalism.”

What far less people know, is that Smith wrote another major book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) before that. In that book he explains the moral conditions necessary for capitalism to function properly. According to Smith, “sympathy”—the ability to place yourself in the shoes of others and look from their perspective to yourself—is the glue holding people together and keeping their pursuit of self-interest within boundaries.

Smith believed that, when people would develop sufficient sympathy, they would realize that it is in their own self-interest to keep in mind the interests of others. Without sufficient sympathy, capitalism could not work properly, he implied.

Of course this is a grave simplification of Smith’s view on capitalism. But it shows how his original version of capitalism is a more constrained version than the free market capitalism we have come to know. And it is not constrained in a top-down manner by governments and laws but by our own individual capacity for sympathy."

The COVID-19 pandemic and the global protests agains racism triggered by George Floyd’s death reflect a period of worldwide turmoil. People around the globe are anxious and angry and call for change. Adding the steeply increasing awareness of the climate crisis over the past year to this (remember Greta Thunberg) suggests that something is going on—a transition perhaps.

Particularly, these developments question the viability of the capitalist system that has emerged over the past two centuries. Rather than seeking only for economic prosperity and value deals, people seem to increasingly seek for purpose, fairness and responsibility. Along those lines, companies, governments and leaders aren’t merely judged anymore based on their economic merits, but also and especially on their moral stance and behavior.

Of course, people have never completely forgotten about this and moral, purpose, fairness and responsibility have always played a role in the capitalist system. But it seems the balance is shifting. And this may bring us back to the kind of capitalist system that Adam Smith originally anticipated.

Adam Smith’s 18th Century Ideas

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was an 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher and political economist. He is well known for his book The Wealth of Nations (1776) in which he lays out the basic principles of capitalism—pursuit of self-interest, specialization of work, competition and exchange through the “invisible hand” of the market rather than by some top-down “visible hand” of government. Accordingly, Smith is often called the “father of capitalism.”

What far less people know, is that Smith wrote another major book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) before that. In that book he explains the moral conditions necessary for capitalism to function properly. According to Smith, “sympathy”—the ability to place yourself in the shoes of others and look from their perspective to yourself—is the glue holding people together and keeping their pursuit of self-interest within boundaries.

Smith believed that, when people would develop sufficient sympathy, they would realize that it is in their own self-interest to keep in mind the interests of others. Without sufficient sympathy, capitalism could not work properly, he implied.

Of course this is a grave simplification of Smith’s view on capitalism. But it shows how his original version of capitalism is a more constrained version than the free market capitalism we have come to know. And it is not constrained in a top-down manner by governments and laws but by our own individual capacity for sympathy.

MORE AT:

Forbes

The COVID-19 pandemic and the global protests agains racism triggered by George Floyd’s death reflect a period of worldwide turmoil.