Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup metatuning Soros in Berkeley

I saw George Soros speak last night. He was interviewed
on-stage by, I believe, the chair of the journalism dept.
at UC Berkeley.

I personally think the guy's a genius, and I resonate
strongly with what I know of his political views. I've
made a note to pick up his book, The Bubble of American
Supremacy.

Interestingly he did not demonize Bush, mentioning his
record on fighting AIDS ("even contributing to the global
fund") and the Millennium Challenge Account. He also
told of having been invited to speak at the State dept.,
and that his experience there indicated to him that "not
everything has been politicized in this government".
Rather, he blames "a group within the government, which
gained the upper hand after 9/11 because the critical
process was suspended". He thinks they are operating
rationally but are "mistaken", being fooled by a self-
reinforcing "bubble". Here's an outline of the discussion:

() the "open society"
() democracy
() free markets
() culture includes "the critical process"
() suspension of the critical process
in America since 9/11
() "most misery in the World is due to bad
government"
() globalization
() "unbalance" between sovereign states, which
are somewhat anachronistic, and the global market,
where the affairs of every nation *are* of vital
importance to all other nations
() supported the intervention in Kosovo
() foreign policy
() international law, not power, should govern
() "truth" and "cooperation", not
"arrogance"
() 'might makes right' is a "self-
fulfilling prophecy", like a stock-market
bubble -- it only works until it doesn't
() neoconservatives view military power as the
moral ideal
() this faction won influence in the
government after 9/11
() but by overextending ourselves in Iraq,
we actually appear weaker
() philanthropy
() "it is much easier to make money than it is to
do good in the World"
() in the case of job loss in free trade,
the losers are not compensated, so a fair
solution is evasive. . .

For the interviewer's repeated attempts to ask him about
the divide between being a capitalist and a liberal, he
denied any such division.

Finally, at the end a fellow loudly exclaimed, and most
were able to hear, "Why don't you tell us the truth, Soros!?
You just want to [unintelligible] Cheney and protect [?]
LaRouche! You're money's bullshit! Tell the truth!!"

The comment seemed well-planned. The interviewer said
sarcastically, "yes, thank you for that comment" and very
quickly escorted Soros off-stage. Meanwhile the audience,
very clearly supportive of Soros, began clapping loudly.
At the same time, three other people stood up, apparently
shouting and pointing angrily, but they could not be heard
over the clapping. Possibility that a small group was in
the crowd planning on raising Cain. Also possible those
three others were just giving a roudy standing-O.

-Carl

🔗Carl Lumma <clumma@...>

> Here's an outline of the discussion:

As always, I think you'll need to hit "reply" to see the
indents.

> Interestingly he did not demonize Bush,

Though he did say that the reasons for going into Iraq
were "not disclosed", and therefore we "do not know"
what they were. But we can "speculate". Oil is the
focus here. He points out the administration should not
be believed about human rights violations, since the
same people looked the other way in the 80's when the
violations were happeing. All in all, there has been
"deception".

> He also told of having been invited to speak at the
> State dept., and that his experience there indicated
> to him that "not everything has been politicized in
> this government".

He further added that the State dept. has been supportive
of his institutes in foreign countries.

-Carl

🔗Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

Carl,

A couple of bits on Soros from a few months back:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/12/1/1745/18873

...with links to this piece...

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm

and this interesting note...

http://tinyurl.com/re74

Cheers,
Jon

🔗Carl Lumma <clumma@...>

> A couple of bits on Soros from a few months back:
>
> http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/12/1/1745/18873

Yes, I read kuro5hin.

> ...with links to this piece...
>
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm

Yes, I link to this on my blog.

> and this interesting note...
>
> http://tinyurl.com/re74

I've read this. I think I got the link from here.

-Carl

🔗Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

🔗Carl Lumma <clumma@...>

🔗Paul Erlich <PERLICH@...>

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Erlich" <PERLICH@A...> wrote:
> --- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
>
> > and this interesting note...
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/re74
>
> Wow. Totally swept under the rug by the media. Then again,
> the "George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service" almost
> reminds me of the "Monty Burns Award for Achievement in the Field of
> Excellence", which was won by Homer Simpson. Not that I'm equating
> Ted with Homer at all . . .

So far it's gone to Kohl, Gorbachev and now Kennedy--making Ted the
first American to get the "three panel prismatic column of crystal".

http://www.georgebushfoundation.org/bush/asp/GeorgeBushAward/AwardRecipients.asp