Latest articles
by Ron Jacobs / June 5th, 2014
If Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was a deserter, then he’s a hero. Furthermore, he might have been the only sane American in Afghanistan. That war is not only unnecessary, it is wrong. Bergdahl’s recognition of this fact (if that’s what occurred) proves his sanity. Then again, perhaps he just got tired of killing and the threat of being killed. Or maybe the military’s excessively macho culture got to him. If he did just walk away from his post, it’s clear something cataclysmic happened in his psyche. It is not his fault other soldiers …
by Adam Engel / June 5th, 2014
Victoria and Albert Museum, London; March, 2000
A passel of statues spread before us, a collection: Buddhas, Saints, variations on a theme of Pietà, knights on catafalques, the whole bit. Centuries of Fashion revised, redacted, re-positioned, from time-to-time, by expert members of Museum staff, in deference to the fashion du jour and its inevitable re-valuation of all values as defined in relation to (and in correlation with) levels of Manichean contempt and contrast between, former regime – Them, and its successor – Us.
Time is the new black.
Percocet clonazepam espresso.
Fresh-air promenades avec Gitaines, Hyde Park.
It cost a pound to …
by Paul Craig Roberts / June 5th, 2014
What are we to make of this?
Two 12 year-old white American girls who look perfectly normal stabbed their 12-year old friend 19 times in a murder attempt. By murdering their friend the girls hoped to win the acceptance of a totally fictitious cartoon character on a website.
Does this mean that not only has the enculturation process in the US deleted morality but also that American kids can no longer tell the difference between fiction and reality?
On several occasions I have written that Americans live in The Matrix, just as in the movie, only there is …
by William Manson / June 4th, 2014
Contra Arendt, one may speak of the “’evil’ of banality”—certainly a pervasive cultural pathology at the present time. Although the average American is not guaranteed sufficient panem, he almost always has access to circenses; i.e., the cornucopia of amusements and games which may soothe and refresh his otherwise battered, humble self. TV sitcoms and the like can be said to offer a kind of low-grade therapy—if by therapy we refer merely to a temporary catharsis of tension rather than deeper insight.
Indeed, as Freud wrote in his book on jokes: humor, by suddenly juxtaposing incongruous thoughts, momentarily dissolves an inner inhibition–thereby …
by David Boyajian / June 4th, 2014
Turkey seems fond of so-called ‘false flag’ operations. In 1955, for example, the Turkish government covertly bombed its own consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece and blamed it on Greeks. The following day, Turkey stage-managed massive anti-Greek riots in Istanbul that killed over a dozen Christians and caused hundreds of millions in damage.
Fast forward to March 2014. A leaked audiotape caught Turkish officials plotting to stage ‘false flag’ military attacks on their own territory and blame them on Syrians. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu, General Ya?ar Gürel, and Intelligence chief Hakan Fidan planned to use the attacks as an …
On the Front Line of the UK Badger Culls
by Lesley Docksey / June 4th, 2014
With the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) all set to restart the English badger culls that were so disastrous last year, people are beginning to question the safety of the exercise. In particular, they are looking at the poor standard of policing.
Admittedly, trying to police an unfamiliar rural area at night, with emotions running high and men with guns and a tendency to ignore the law pitted against people who were trying to stop the badgers from being shot was never going to be an easy job. But that is no excuse for the muddle, bias …
by Thomas Riggins / June 4th, 2014
Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century, has almost had the effect of a tsunami on economic thinking here in the United States after its translation from French into English washed up on our monoglot shores. In France itself it has been treated as more or less just another economics book– no big deal.
Its impact on the US is due to many factors, not least of which is the fact that our educational system is woefully inadequate by European standards as well as our lower cultural literacy compared to Europe. Piketty’s work appears here as a revelation, but …
Please Go Back to the Streets
by Ramzy Baroud / June 4th, 2014
Irrespective of how one feels about the direction taken by various Arab revolutions in the last three years, a few facts remain incontestable. Arab revolts began in the streets of poor, despairing Arab cities, and Arabs had every right to rebel considering the dismal state of affairs in which they live.
Few disagree with these two notions. However, the quarrel, in part, is concerned with the cost-benefit analysis of some of these revolutions, Syria being the prime example. Is it worth destroying a country, several times over and victimizing millions to achieve an uncertain democratic future?
The cost for Egypt was high …
by James Hoover / June 3rd, 2014
A few years back, under the watchful eyes of Halliburton Company CEO Dave Lasser, an underling executive supposedly drank a glass of fracking fluid, namely, CleanStim, then under development. This was to convince attendees at a conference presented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association that fracking fluid was safe.
It’s reasonable to assume that these demonstrations are hoaxes, substituting an organic fluid under development for toxic fluids actually used. Why else would most energy companies object to disclosing the contents of fracking fluid? Why else the lack of transparency?
As late as this year scientists investigating the aftermath of fracking know …
by William Boardman / June 3rd, 2014
One of the most prestigious honors any university can bestow is an honorary degree, a degree which is conferred honoris causa, that is, for the sake of honor. This degree recognizes an individual’s exceptional achievement or distinction in a field or activity consonant with the mission of the university. Through this major public action, the university is able to acknowledge worthy individuals of national and international acclaim whose accomplishments support the ideals of the university and serve as an example for our students, alumni, and society. Nominations may be made by the public or any member of the university …
by Jay Janson / June 3rd, 2014
The Left Forum’s tenth annual conference was held this year at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York. Left Forum describes itself as “convening “the largest annual conference of a broad spectrum of left and progressive intellectuals, activists, academics, organizations and the interested public.”
The rather enigmatic theme for Left Forum 2014 was “Reform and/or Revolution: Imagining a World of Transformative Justice,” but one heard no mention of justice for the victims of sixty-nine years of US-NATO genocide presently ongoing in a dozen Muslim nations in the Middle-East and Africa as being a …
A Conversation with Paul Craig Roberts
by Gary Corseri / June 3rd, 2014
This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
There are men who can’t be bought.
The fireborn are at home in fire.
— Carl Sandburg, from The People, Yes
Gary Corseri: I’ve been reading your work fairly regularly over the past 4 years. Within this year, I’ve reviewed your two most recent books: The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and How America was Lost. I know something about your background as Assistant Treasury Secretary during the Reagan Administration, and as a former associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, etc. You and I have corresponded a little, mostly about …
To Perform Rather Than Live Democracy
by Jan Oberg / June 3rd, 2014
Fears has been expressed in Europe about the recent EU parliament voting pattern. Instead of the fear and denouncing the winners we should ask: What causes such an outcome?
My short answer is this: Democracy itself is in deep crisis. It has become performance or ritual rather than something genuinely lived.
Two things stand out: one, the increase in votes going to nationalist, populist, right-wing and anti-Muslim parties as well as Euro-skeptics – particularly in Denmark, France, Greece and Britain.
Secondly, the voter turnout has fallen from 62 per cent in 1979 to 43% in 2009 and this year it increased only …
by Paul Haeder / June 3rd, 2014
how do we stop the bleed in higher education which is the bleed of participatory governance?
This will be quick since I have to hoof it to the Vancouver City Council in support of a resolution to NOT allow that dirty, rotten thug of a company, Tesoro, to run its rails of immolation from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to our “port” of Vancouver. A virtual pipeline on rails, and what a stupid idea this is. You know, in a world of sickness, more kids with more lung ailments, more talk about mitigating climate warming by REDUCING CO2 emissions. Mark that …
by James Petras / June 3rd, 2014
For decades social critics have bemoaned the influence of sports and entertainment spectacles in ‘distracting’ workers from struggling for their class interests. According to these analysts, ‘class consciousness’ was replaced by ‘mass’ consciousness. They argued that atomized individuals, manipulated by the mass media, were converted into passive consumers who identified with millionaire sports heroes, soap opera protagonists and film celebrities.
The culmination of this ‘mystification’ – mass distraction –were the ‘world championships’ watched by billions around the world and sponsored and financed by billionaire corporations: the …
by Robert Hunziker / June 2nd, 2014
Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, famously said: “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only paranoid survive.”
Grove’s sage advice hopefully rings a bell with advocates of the climate change issue. They should take heed, stop and listen to what is said, because they may be inadvertently breeding complacency when paranoia is needed more so than ever before.
For example, The Economist “Digital Highlights,” May 24-30, 2014, carries an article, “Weighing the Future”, that says the following about the climate change issue: “Scientists have recently given warning that polar ice is melting at a faster rate than was previously thought. For many …
by Gary Engler / June 2nd, 2014
Is Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century a left-wing book?
Yes and no. It depends on how you define “left wing”.
If you believe the litmus test of being “left” is opposition to capitalism, then the book may be interesting and important, but it is not left wing. If, on the other hand, you believe capitalism is a dynamic economic system worth preserving, but in need of a tune-up, you would likely have a different answer. In the range of political/economic opinion allowed in the corporate North American media the book is certainly at the left end of the spectrum.
…
Global Power Project: Part 4 of 4 Part Series
by Andrew Gavin Marshall / June 1st, 2014
In Part 1 of this series, I examined the history and early evolution of the annual meeting that takes place among world bankers and financial and monetary officials at the International Monetary Conference. Part 2 looked at the role of the IMC in the lead-up to the 1980s debt crisis.Part 3 examined the influence of the IMC throughout that decade’s debt crisis. This last installment – published just as the IMC prepares for its June 1-3 meeting at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany – looks at what the IMC has done since the 1990s to maintain its status among the world’s most …
by Howie Hawkins and Steve Breyman / June 1st, 2014
New York State faces a fateful choice over its energy, environmental, and economic future.
It can chose a 21st century upgrade to clean energy and create a sustainable prosperity that protects our climate, cleans our air, and revives our economy. Or it can continue to rely on a 19th and 20th century fossil fueled energy system that will leave it battered by climate change, poisoned by pollution, and economically stagnant while other states and nations pass it by as they adopt the new sustainable technologies of the 21st century.
Unfortunately, New York’s draft Energy Plan points backward to the fossil fueled past …
British Government Blocks Transparency
by Felicity Arbuthnot / June 1st, 2014
Amidst howls of “whitewash” from media commentators and interested observers of all political hues, it seems the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war are finally to be published by the end of this year.
The Inquiry, Chaired by Sir John Chilcot, ran from autumn 2009 to February 2011. The Report is expected to run to several thousand pages with the total cost incurred from the date of the establishment of the hearings “on 15th June 2009 up to 31st March 2012 — £6,129,000.” As of 16th May this year, “On the present timetable, the Inquiry may incur …
Financing Costs More than Construction
by Ellen Brown / June 1st, 2014
Funding infrastructure through bonds doubles the price or worse. Costs can be cut in half by funding through the state’s own bank.
“The numbers are big. There is sticker shock,” said Jason Peltier, deputy manager of the Westlands Water District, describing Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to build two massive water tunnels through the California Delta. “But consider your other scenarios. How much more groundwater can we pump?”
Whether the tunnels are the best way to get water to the Delta is controversial, but the issue here is the cost. The tunnels were billed to voters as a $25 billion project. That …
Greek EU Elections
by Christos Kefalis / May 31st, 2014
The Greek EU elections have produced what is clearly a historical result, not only for Greece but for the European Union as well. SYRIZA won by a clear margin of almost 4% (3.8% to be more precise), scoring 26.5% against 22.7% of ND, the governing right party. Moreover, in the municipal and regional elections SYRIZA gained an impressive victory in Attica district with Rena Dourou, though it failed to elect Sakellaridis in Athens, who lost by a small margin to Kaminis.
SYRIZA’s victory is widely discussed by the European mass media, together with Marine Le Pen’s impressive first place in France, …
by Pepe Escobar / May 31st, 2014
The unipolar model of the world order has failed.
— Vladimir Putin, St Petersburg, May 22
In more ways than one, last week heralded the birth of a Eurasian century. Of course, the US$400 billion Russia-China gas deal was clinched only at the last minute in Shanghai, on Wednesday (a complement to the June 2013, 25-year, $270 billion oil deal between Rosneft and China’s CNPC.)
Then, on Thursday, most of the main players were at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum — the Russian answer to Davos. And on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, fresh from his Shanghai triumph, addressed the participants …
by Arshad M. Khan / May 31st, 2014
The President’s foreign policy address at West Point was interesting in that he advocated a judicious use of military force. But proxies can be just as devastating and proxies of proxies uncontrollable. Thousands upon thousands are dead in Libya and we now have the general (Khalifa Haftar) who found shelter and further training in Langley (1990 onwards after a betrayal by Muammar Gaddafi) rampaging across the country, while marines wait offshore. The blowback from Libyan chaos has already led to a well-armed Boko Haram causing new chaos in Nigeria.
In Syria, hundreds of thousands have been killed and …
by Myles Hoenig / May 31st, 2014
I have just finished Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal. It’s written well enough to read in just a short week of a few sittings but this took me several weeks. For those unfamiliar with it, Blumenthal wrote about the day-to-day humiliations faced by Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and Jewish activists in Greater Israel.
What makes this so difficult to read is that it paints Israel as a Jewish state doing horrible things, not just in the name of Judaism, but by an entire population who does it just because they are Jewish. The insane fanaticism …
by Walter Brasch / May 31st, 2014
During this past week, in Scranton, Pa., a 16-year old put two bullets into the head of a taxi driver and then stole about $500 earned by the cabbie that evening.
The teen, who showed no remorse when arrested a few hours later, mumbled a few words about his reasons. He said he murdered the cabbie “’Cause that’s what I do to people that don’t listen.” The teen thought the cabbie was taking too long to get him to his destination. The driver was a 47-year-old man with a wife and two children. The gun was an unlicensed 9-mm.
A few days …
by William Boardman / May 30th, 2014
Fallout from Fukushima? A re-make of Godzilla! That’s the good news
There’s not much new to say about Fukushima. It remains an out of control disaster with as yet unmeasurable dimensions that continue to expand. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that everything new about Fukushima is just the same-old same-old getting worse at an uneven and unpredictable rate. Either way, it’s not good and, while it’s worse in degree, it’s not yet apparently worse in kind, so that’s one reason you don’t hear that much about it in the news these days.
Whatever the full truth is about …
Coming to a Town Near You
by Brian Terrell / May 30th, 2014
On April 15, 2014, when the story broke on the world that the Central Intelligence Agency’s covert program of assassination by remotely controlled drones is not distinct from the drone program of the U.S. Air Force as we had been told, I was on the “Sacred Peace Walk,” an event sponsored each spring by the Nevada Desert Experience, a 70 mile trek from Las Vegas to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Creech Air Force Base is along the way and we had already made plans for a protest there the next morning. While the CIA’s drone program is shrouded in …
by James Hoover / May 30th, 2014
Aside from the misogyny evidenced by the Elliot Rodger massacre at Isla Vista, there are broader cultural issues: mental health, affluent entitlements, and the rampant accessibility of guns. Put them all together and we have problems to address, but they are more akin to a culture run amok than to passing more regulatory laws.
Feeding this morass are two forces fighting for power and control, one led by conservative forces and the other led by progressive forces. Moderates are in the middle. Conservatives believe in free market forces and unbridled, but lawful, personal choices with small government and little regulation. In …
by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall / May 30th, 2014
Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us about Our Future by Peter D Ward, is a chronology of the paleontological research linking mass extinction events with prehistoric episodes of global warming caused by high atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Ward explores the likelihood that current, unprecedented increases in both greenhouse gasses will lead to a new mass extinction.
The dinosaurs were wiped out by a mass extinction 144 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous …
