> And the only person on this list who has come under consistent criticism
> from me is Dennis, because he is so completely arbitrary in his
> pollyannaism. Just a year and a half ago he was singing the praises of
> the "progressive" EU.
I don't mind criticism, but I object to personal invective, sectarian vitriol and threats about smashing people's noses. Take those offlist, please.
As for the EU -- there's plenty which is progressive about the European Union: universal health insurance, strong unions, codetermination, Left parties, publicly-owned banks and media, and considerable investment in renewable energy and green jobs. And there's much which is scary and regressive: euroliberalism, austerity, neocolonialism, xenophobia.
> Dennis just quietly stopped referring to
> the EU, and switched songs to the BRIC countries. Sorry, that's not
> serious.
Nonsense. There's a genuine geopolitical underway transformation which noone, including me (I've written about this elsewhere: http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Triplezilla.pdf), saw coming at the time. But it's happening, and we need to understand it. The BRICs are 42% of the planet's population, are growing at 8% per annum, have $3.5 trillion in forex reserves, and have powerhouse media cultures. They're also the leading edge of the global semi-periphery. This is a seismic transformation, the biggest since WW II.
-- DRR