WATCH YOUR MOUTH, JOHN KERRY. The new U.S. Secretary of State commits the unpardonable sin of comparing the suffering visited on innocent people at the Boston Marathon with the 2010 Israeli raid and killing of numerous passengers on a “flotilla” of vessels bound with humanitarian aid to breach the Israeli blockage of Gaza. Israeli [...]
“ANTIQUE COLD WARRIORS IN THE SERVICE OF PIRATE CAPITALISTS.” This is Rob Urie’s tag-line for his scathing denunciation of the Iraqi war: the authorities who perpetrated it, and the 75% of Americans who “supported” it until the action came to be seen as too costly and futile. Bush administration officials come under major charges [...]
MERRY CHRISTMAS! WHILE YOU WERE UNWRAPPING GIFTS, CONGRESS GAVE THE GREEN LIGHT TO WARRANTLESS EMAIL SNOOPING. Federal agencies will be allowed to continue spying on the private emails of Americans after the Senate mysteriously dropped a key amendment to legislation that had been advertised as a way to protect the rights and privacy of [...]
DON’T WORRY. THOSE PESKY AGGRIEVED WALMART EMPLOYEES WON’T HAMPER YOUR BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING SPREE… ` The mega-retailer faces its largest labor protest to date as union groups and frustrated current employees vow to organize a nationwide walkout at Walmart stores on the day after Thanksgiving. So-called “Black Friday” is the most important day of [...]
THE “REAL” PETRAEUS SCANDAL, PART I: WHAT ABOUT THE DRONES? With the press all atwitter over the female liaisons of now ex-CIA director and retired four star General David Petraeus, Robin Wright argues in The Atlantic that the “real” scandal is how virtually no one in the same media class bothered to question Petraeus’ [...]
“INVESTING IN MUSIC FOR ALL CITIZENS”: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MANY AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS DO NOT DO. “Non-profit” orchestras treat their audiences and their musicians just like many for-profit corporations treat their employees: get as much “productivity” as they can out of their employees by keeping their wages as low as possible. Symphonies in [...]
AFRICANS IN ISRAEL POSE “A CONCRETE THREAT TO THE JEWISH AND DEMOCRATIC CHARACTER OF ISRAEL.” (Electronic Intifada) This 2010 statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu epitomizes the current spate of violence against African refugees (mostly from Sudan and Eritrea) in Israel. The verbal violence of right wing voices, including some of those who serve [...]
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RECALL MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN? CAN YOU SAY CO-OPTATION? (Black Agenda Report) Without using that word, Bruce Dixon’s account of the devastating defeat of the effort to recall union-buster Scott Walker as Governor of Wisconsin follows exactly that scenario of what happens when political “movements” turn into political “campaigns.” The movement excitement [...]
POWERFUL MULTI-NATIONAL AGRIBUSINESS CORPORATIONS AND A COMPLIANT AND CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT: RECIPE FOR WORLD LAND GRABS. (Foreign Policy in Focus) Recent protests in African country of Sierra Leone highlight a world pattern: the acquisition for mono-culture cultivation of tracts of land removed from the control of local farmers. Around 20% of the country’s arable land [...]
WHAT’S THAT IN THE SKY? A BIRD? A PLANE? “NOPE, JUST OUR LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT’S 25-POUND DRONE…” (Business Week) Unprecedented police control of the nation’s skies appears imminent after the Federal Aviation Administration and the Obama administration gave hearty approval to the request of undetermined “public safety agencies” to place unmanned drones weighing up [...]
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