Recent Blogs
While politicians, pundits and others are freaking out about the growing violence in Iraq, there is another country that is facing troubles: Egypt. The newly elected President of Egypt and former Supreme military commander, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, said at his inauguration, according to the L.A. Times, that there needs to be “a more stable future…for Read more…
SYNOPSIS: (WHERE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IS WRONG) It’s important that we learn about hunger to better prevent it. Learning about the connection between the farm bill and cheap junk food is an important part of this. Unfortunately, this article gives a false analysis, claiming that subsidies cause cheap farm prices. It suggests that subsidies should be Read more…
Surveillance, empire and the future By Aaron Leonard for rabble.ca July 17, 2014 No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald (Metropolitan Books, 2014; $27.00) Way back in July 2000, the Wall Street Journal, reporting on revelations and rumors about NSA snooping, offered the following: “The granddaddy Read more…
“The night the 1954 Brown decision to desegregate schools was announced, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund threw a party. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had worked on the case was reported to have said this, ‘You fools go ahead and have your fun, but we ain’t begun to work yet.” In 1952 my Read more…
Ever since the horrors of submarine warfare became a key issue during World War I, submarines have had a sinister reputation. And the building of new, immensely costly, nuclear-armed submarines by the U.S. government and others may soon raise the level of earlier anxiety to a nuclear nightmare. This spring, the U.S. government continued its Read more…
Recently, pollsters found out, via ‘We Need Smith,’ which is a self-declared “movement of Americans who believe we need new leaders because our country is badly headed in the wrong direction” and not relying on the “usual politics,” what they called the “battlelines of a new political order.” I’m not sure how I feel about Read more…
Towards a new political model By Tapani Lausti Heather Marsh, Binding Chaos: Systems of Mass Collaboration. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2013. Squares, parks and plazas may be currenly empty of demonstrators. Yet in many societies something has moved. Contours of another kind of social life have come briefly in view. The experience has had a Read more…
I’m becoming quite certain that all of our problems arise from the fact that we are deeply confused. What do I mean by this? Good question. Hesitation, doubt, consideration (of the evidence), plans, or anyway taking time to make them– these are the hallmarks of our unwieldy, bipedally-locomoted, erectly-postured skull-contents. Other animals, I’ve noticed, when Read more…
Green Time TV Acting and Building Green by Don Fitz Acting green includes opposing environmental racism, which condemns people of color to higher rates of environmental pollutants. And building green actually begins with retrofitting homes before even thinking about new green construction. But August episodes of Green Time TV kicks off with a show on Read more…
This article is a slightly modified version of a facebook comment previously made by me[1] in response to a facebook post from the journalist and blogger Jonathan Cook.[2] In that facebook post, Cook offers an article by Tom Suarez in Mondoweiss[3] as being, in Cook’s eyes, a good starting point for criticisms of Chomsky’s position Read more…
Article after article in ‘left’ publications have advocated for US Senator Bernie Sanders to run. Even Socialist Alternative which helped Kshama Sawant, the first Socialist member of the Seattle City Council, get into office, had a recent article describing Senator Sanders as “a genuine progressive and champion of ordinary people” and said he should run Read more…
This is a response to: Brad Plumer, “Map: Here’s How Much Each Country Spends on Food,” [http://www.vox.com/2014/7/6/5874499/map-heres-how-much-every-country-spends-on-food?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_name=share-button&utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=article-share-top] The points made in this article and it’s charts about poverty and the struggle to be able to afford food are extremely important. Nevertheless, on that point and others, I find the chart project to be seriously inadequate, Read more…
. . . And the last item to leave Pandora’s Box was Hope. Love those who are desperately waiting for RAPTURE. “What would Lewin do?’ I have been wondering about it quite a bit lately. One reason is my effort to communicate with a rapture group on Google named ‘Peace for Israel.’ Perhaps naivete led me Read more…
This will most likely be first of many articles addressing the political views expressed in a WordPress blog called “Ravithinks”. This blog was brought to my attention by certain friends who noticed that the views espoused therein, belonging to a blogger called Ravi Kiran, are quite different to my own sociopolitical views. In presenting Kiran’s Read more…
My latest piece, “Building Global Labor Solidarity Today: Learning from the KMU of the Philippines” just has been published in the new journal, “Race, Class and Corporate Power.” It is available on-line and for free a thttp://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol3/iss1/4/ . I think there’s a lot to be learned from KMU, and encourage folks to check it out.Best–Kim Scipes
Over one year ago, the war-weary population and Congress rose up in protest and a war with Syria was averted to the chagrin of international capital. The hawkish politicians and pundits, masters of war, military establishment, arms manufacturers, and other interested parties want another go at it. On all the mainstream TV channels, the same Read more…
On July 12, three Israeli teenagers disappeared. The Israeli government and most of the media say they were “kidnapped,” although there have been no ransom demands. If they were taken by one of the five previously-unknown groups that claimed responsibility (including, apparently, a branch of the now-ubiquitous ISIS), that group would probably say that they were Read more…
(Image source: http://www.sacw.net/article7143.html) It’s been over a month since I witnessed, with vicarious trauma, the meteoric rise of Narendra Modi to become one of the world’s most powerful men, commanding one of the world’s most brutal, nuclear-armed militaries. The two weeks of hopeless depression are over, and a slow, lightly simmering anger has set in. Read more…
Green Time TV Protecting the Earth by Don Fitz It’s time to enjoy the Earth while protecting it from those forces that threaten it. July episodes of Green Time TV look at both the positive actions that environmentalists are taking and exactly what the Earth is. Solar panels are popping up all over. Would solar Read more…
Aggressive militarism continues to emanate from the office of the presidency and the US government itself. With drone strikes in foreign countries, an “empire of drone bases” in Africa as the Washington Post once called it, and a continuing war in Afghanistan, you would think that there would be mass protests on the streets against Read more…
So, where are we? Saddam Hussein was an Iran loving Shia Muslim who wanted to hand Iraq over to Iran. No, that can’t be right, Iraq fought a war with Iran and received the West’s blessing and backing for the war. So, Saddam Hussein must have been an Iran hating Sunni Muslim receiving his backing Read more…
There is always talk about how the internet is a magically decentralized system. Eli Pariser, the former head of the liberal, pro-Democratic Party group, MoveOn, challenges this notion in his 2011 book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You, in which he sounds off on the dangers of digital personalization. This article Read more…
The left in the UK is at a crossroads. Economic problems are breeding dissatisfaction with mainstream politics, a situation in which the left should thrive, according to the usual ideas. But the organizations that see themselves as presenting a positive alternative are in a state of flux. Established parties are rupturing while new outfits are Read more…
National officials certainly assume that war has a future. According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, world military expenditures totaled nearly $1.75 trillion in 2013. Although, after accounting for inflation, this is a slight decrease over the preceding year, many countries increased their military spending significantly, including China, Russia, and Saudi Read more…
Dedication: For my friend Karen. I owe you, big time. “Own yourself. It doesn’t cost anything.”–Rolf Auer,2013 Section 1: Where is my money going? Let’s say you arrive cold in some Canadian city like Vancouver BC by Greyhound bus wearing only the clothes on your back. Let’s say it’s after business hours. You’re hungry, Read more…
“We have asked the Inspectors General for CPS and the US Department of Education to examine the last votes to turn over 3 schools to AUSL for turnaround to determine if there were any conflicts of interest among board members and AUSL; to analyze the relationship–if any– between political contributions to Mayor Emanuel from AUSL Read more…
Is economic inequality growing in American higher education? A report just issued by the Institute for Policy Studies―The One Percent at State U―indicates that it is. Surveying public universities, the report finds that the 25 highest-paid presidents increased their income by a third between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2012, bringing their average total compensation to Read more…
From Canadian Dimension In Trujillo’s Wake Aaron Leonard | May 26th 2014 Santo Domingo. Image courtesy Aaron Leonard. Images: 123 It was just before sunset and we were driving along Avenida George Washington, which borders the Caribbean Sea along Santo Domingo’s Malecon, when the older gentleman serving as my guide, pointed out a series of monuments Read more…
“I am here to remind America that it is a crime to live in this great nation and to receive starvation wages. At McDonalds $8.25 an hour, what I make is about $400 every two weeks. With that salary I have to choose between rent and food. Rent and light…but this isn’t just about me Read more…
Belief and Authority What do Charles Sanders Pierce and Rudolf Rocker have in common? Well, a lot one could say. But beyond the obvious, there is an interesting connection in their work that is still very relevant to current affairs today. Public opinion, and the control of it by authority, is still a crucial problem Read more…
Hundreds of people gathered in Union Square on Sunday, May 18th, in support of and solidarity with Cecily McMilan, the Occupy Wall Street protester who was recently found guilt of assaulting a police officer for protecting herself when a police officer sexually assaulted her. Cecily is due to be sentenced on May 19th, facing 2-7 Read more…
Go to source. Yesterday (May 15th), the New York Times published a story by Edward Wyatt on the FCC’s “net neutrality” decision. Here are the first two paragraphs of the story, and what I believe was the headline (See note below), as it appeared on the NYT web site yesterday: F.C.C. Votes to Move Ahead Read more…
The anonymous blogger at Interventionswatch writes: The ‘former General’ is Khalifa Haftar, who spent years living in Virginia in the U.S. (i.e. C.I.A. country), but who returned to Libya in 2011 to aid the ‘rebels’, and who was almost certainly a C.I.A. asset at some point in his career. Anyway, this guy is now reportedly bombing Benghazi from Read more…
As I see the exit polls on Indian news channels, predicting an outright win for the fascists and their running dogs, I feel a sense of helpless rage. Empty. Angry. There is a difference between rage and helpless rage. The two are nothing alike. The former, in the words of the immortal Maya Angelou, “is like Read more…
Is overwhelming national military power a reliable source of influence in world affairs? If so, the United States should certainly have plenty of influence today. For decades, it has been the world’s Number 1 military spender. And it continues in this role. According to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Read more…
Green Time TV Doing the Right Thing by Don Fitz What does “Doing the right thing” mean? It includes, but goes beyond, taking responsible individual action. “Doing the right thing” includes being part of an organization that takes collective, effective action. June episodes of Green Time TV explore issues which beg for individual work as Read more…