Новости за 11.09.2015

The outlawing of narcotic drugs at the start of the Twentieth Century, the turning of the matter from public health to social control, coincided with American’s imperial Open Door policy and the belief that the government had an obligation to American industrialists to create markets in every nation in the world, whether those nations liked it or not. Civic institutions, like public education, were required to sanctify this policy, while “security” bureaucracies were established to ensure the citizenry conformed to the state ideology. Читать дальше...

Despite the fact that the manufacturers of ideas have elevated economics to the (contradictory) levels of both a science and a religion, a market theodicy, mainstream economics does not explain much when it comes to an understanding of real world developments. Indeed, as a neatly stylized discipline, economics has evolved into a corrupt, obfuscating and useless—nay, harmful—field of study. Harmful, because instead of explaining and clarifying it tends to mystify and justify. One of the many flaws... Читать дальше...

I am often asked to participate in panels about race. This usually happens in February because Black History Month is the only time universities are interested in talking about what ails black people on their campuses. At the end of almost every panel I’ve attended, there will inevitably be a question from a well meaning, if not naïve, person asking for solutions. After hearing us lay out the complexity and intractability of white supremacy in America, this person will usually ask, “So…what can be... Читать дальше...

If you’ve been following the markets for the last three weeks, you’ve probably figured out that something is wrong. The markets are no longer behaving the way they should, and that has people worried. Very worried. In the last 15 trading days, the Dow Jones has experienced an unprecedented 13 triple-digit days, which means that More

Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a licking, along with his co-thinkers and political allies in Israel and around the world. The Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress who slavishly do Netanyahu’s bidding took a hit too; and the Israel lobby in the United States, along with its counterparts in other Western countries, must have finally come to the realization that, for them, the salad days are over. They thought they were invincible; everybody did. And yet they couldn’t stop the nuclear weapons deal that six world powers... Читать дальше...

Jeremy Corbyn’s win today marks a revolutionary, seismic change in British politics. But it is also so much more than that. It’s not just the fact that he won, but that he won so decisivelyin the first round, with almost 60% of the vote, victorious in each of the three Labour Party ‘chapters’ – party members, More

The United States is countering the independent development of Latin American countries by using its military power and influence. For more than two centuries, the United States has viewed Latin America as its “backyard,” a geopolitical sphere of influence where it acts as undisputed hegemon. The history of the Western hemisphere, broadly speaking, reflects this More

Between now and next April, four members of the European Union (EU) will hold national elections that will go a long ways toward determining whether the 28-member organization will continue to follow an economic model that has generated vast wealth for a few, widespread misery for many, and growing income inequality. The choice is between an almost religious focus on the “sin” of debt and the “redemption” of austerity, as opposed to a re-calibration toward economic stimulus and social welfare. The backdrop for elections in Greece... Читать дальше...

Doing time creates a demented darkness of my own imagination… Doing time does this thing to you. But of course you don’t do time. You do without it. Or rather, time does you. Time is a cannibal that devours the flesh of yours day by day, night by night.  — Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings: My More

Hrvoje Šimičević: You recently co-wrote with Brad Evans a book called “Disposable Futures”. What are the current foundations for disposable futures? HG: The violence of global neoliberalism increasingly treats those elements of the population that do not buy into the values of casino capitalism or for whom they cannot extract wealth as excess, unworthy of More

“Wars are complex. They come out of nowhere and all of a sudden, people you’ve never heard of are killing each other on the evening news.” So begins this rather patronising piece on Upworthy that attempts to explain in a digestible format what is happening in Syria. Entitled ‘Trying to follow what is going on More

President Obama’s summer of climate change is a perfect microcosm of just how absurd and fantastical reality in the 21st century has become. In a stunning display of political dexterity, the President managed to drive the probable stake through the heart of hopes for meaningful climate change mitigation, while simultaneously presenting himself as a dedicated, More

As the United States Congress debates whether or not to accept an agreement that the U.S. and five other nations reached with Iran, regulating that nation’s nuclear program, the media keeps a less-than-rapt public informed. Each day, news pundits first speculate on how this or that senator may vote, and then when some senator announces More

Fires from the Tianjin blast. Videos of the August 13 explosion at Tianjin are terrifying and amazing.  Based on the seismic record, the second explosion was equivalent to the detonation of 21 tons of TNT. It’s not difficult to understand why Xi Jinping might have, as Willie Lam alleges, entertained the notion that this was More

Sheldon Adelson. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both spent around $1bn on their 2012 presidential campaigns. Rather than fund a candidate in 2016, New York billionaire Donald Trump decided to stand himself. “My income is $400m a year,” he claimed. “Sure, I would spend it [on campaigning].” In 1992 billionaire Ross Perot promised to “buy More

“It is true that Europe cannot house all the misery in the world. But we have to put it into perspective.” EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Sep 9, 2015. European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker knows it. Most of Europe knows it. In his “state of the union” speech to the European parliament, Juncker found himself More

For a long time Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi appeared as an impenetrable phenomenon to foreign observers. He was routinely dismissed as an exotic anomaly tied to the idiosyncrasies of Italian political culture. Today, he might not seem so unfamiliar. There are striking analogies between Italy’s former prime minister and the current front-runner in the Republican presidential More

Does anyone in the U.S. still believe in the American Dream, that the nation’s better days remain ahead?  In the half-century following World War II, Americans embraced a shared ideology that hard work, debt and white skin privilege would guarantee them – and, more importantly, their children – a better tomorrow.  Those days are over. More

Forty-five years ago marked a tragic event in labor union history. In the midst of the Vietnam War, around 1,000 high school and college students joined in New York City to protest both Vietnam and the murder of four peaceful college students at Kent State University just a few days earlier, after National Guard soldiers fired into More

One could argue that the massive refugee flows triggered primarily by ISIS and al Nusrah, and possibly accelerated by alleged indiscriminate attacks on civilians by the al-Assad regime, have mutated into a powerful grand-strategic weapon of mass destruction. I use the term “grand strategic” advisedly, because it involves more the sustainment of cohesion and morale More

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell once said “an election is no time to discuss important issues.” But surely the opportunity to free up $40 billion while making the world a safer place ought to spark a discussion about the Canadian Navy’s role in the world. Four years ago the Conservatives announced the National Shipbuilding Procurement More

US Embassy in Havana. U.S. political leaders are rethinking Cuba. Business leaders have spoken out. Public opinion favors ending hostilities, even among Cuban Americans. Foreign policy specialists hold that fixing relations with Cuba may boost the U.S. image throughout Latin America. But primarily, beating up on Cuba did not work. Or, as President Obama said More

When we discuss neoliberalism, the current stage of capitalism, we naturally focus on economics and politics. But no domineering system can arise, much less remain and even intensify over decades, without a cultural apparatus that extends well beyond basic propaganda. Feelings of hopelessness must be engendered. Although such injections can be, and often are, spread More

Athens. Since the beginning of Greece’s financial crisis in 2010, two prime ministers have been swept from office after they were forced to adopt an unfeasible package of austerity measures in exchange for a bailout from the troika, as the eurozone authorities — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund More