Новости за 01.08.2018

In Blighty, not quite as yet a banana republic like the US, young children are not (so far) kidnapped on a massive scale by the state, and its non-whites (so far) only generally endure systemic and repetitive police harassment and beatings, albeit, relative to the US, with the very occasional police killing thrown in. The burning issue in the UK, where immigration is concerned, consists in the subsequent denial of the right of residence to those who entered the country entirely legally. More

With the outrageous decision by the Trump White House to bar a CNN propagandist posing as a reporter, more people are now starting to make the connection between press freedom and the issue of the “right to know” and of unimpeded information.  But we have to ask once again, where was this concern when democrats under Obama were using the espionage act to jail whistleblowers and prosecuting journalists? More

Humanity’s and the Earth’s prospects have been dimming for the past year and a half. But they’ve been bleak for a long time; as little was being done about the global ecological crisis before January 2017 as has been done since. Neither then nor now has the national or world power structure acknowledged that deep reductions in human resource use and economic activity, but with sufficiency for all, are necessary. Instead, the most popular proposed “solutions” would double down on human ingenuity and market forces... Читать дальше...

Five years ago, one view of an international event triumphed in the West; through assiduous repetition, it has become a state religion. It holds that President Barack Obama made a tragic mistake on 31 August 2013 when he decided not to launch air strikes on the Syrian army after its deadly chemical attacks in the More

The world of the terrifying hypothetical is programmatically standard in the Trump White House.  Periods of tense calm are followed by careless flights of fury, digs and remonstrations.  Mortal enemies become amenable comrades; reliable allies turn into irresponsible skinflints who ought to fork our more for their defence. For all that swirling chaos, the one More

“It just feels like they’re coming for us. It’s not paranoia. It’s objectively just looking at what is happening…It used to be people felt shame for being a racist or saying the word ‘nigger’.  Not now.”  –  Eva Patterson, founder of Oakland’s Equal Justice Society, on the murder of 18-year-old Nia Wilsonby a white supremacist More

One of the more curious developments in recent months has been the bipartisan effort to pass the First Step Act, a “prison reform” bill that was approved by the House of Representatives in May.  If passed by the Senate, the bill will lead to some minor improvements in the treatment of prisoners currently incarcerated in More

Hear me out. I realize the idea of sharing may seem like a vulgarity to the sophisticated American mind, could rile a few people up. The mere suggestion of sharing without receiving something in return may tempt good capitalists of the world to spit on me in disgust, call me commie filth, and possibly launch More

The quote in the headline comes from Mao Tse Tung. It was aptly used by Professor Slavoj Žižek to describe the situation we find ourselves in during the Trump era. There are many things to dislike about President Trump, but he is shaking up the establishment and raising mishandled issues that would not otherwise be discussed. He is More

On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion ripped through the Upper Big Branch coal mine in southern West Virginia. The mine was owned and operated by Massey Energy. Twenty-nine miners were killed. On December 6, 1907, a massive explosion ripped through the Monongah mine outside Fairmont, West Virginia. More than 500 miners were killed. It More

Like many countries, India’s food system was essentially clean just a generation or two ago but is now being comprehensively contaminated with sugar, bad fats, synthetic additives, GMOs and pesticides under the country’s neoliberal ‘great leap forward’. The result has been a surge in obesity, diabetes and cancer incidence, while there has been no let-up More

A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the. adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards even higher objectives. If the universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the nation and the people. —Jawaharlal Nehru, convocation address More

The Delta Counties Coalition (DCC), an alliance of the counties of Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo, on July 23 issued a statement opposing the Delta Conveyance Finance Authority’s (DCFA) request for a $1.6 billion loan from the Trump Administration through an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program for the construction of Governor Jerry More

The Americans with Disabilities Act turned 28 this July. The ADA was signed into law on July 26th, 1990 by the first President Bush. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all areas of public life. Traditionally, Capitol Hill marks the day, and, one way or another, the White House issues a statement, and More

Only some of the characters have changed and some affiliations. South Africa is in the midst of a crisis. Of that there is no doubt. But what that crisis is about is less certain. Some would call it a power struggle between contending leaders. Others would call it a skills crisis. Yet others would blame More