IS AMERICA LOSING ITS “BACKYARD IN THE SOUTH”? Considering the U.S. and Latin American reactions to the recent Venezuelan election, it would appear that things are seriously awry for the U.S. in that backyard. While Washington tries to subvert the electoral process that (narrowly) elected a successor in the mold of Hugo Chavez, other [...]
MILITARY UBER ALLES: LIBERTARIAN WRITER DECRIES THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICAN LIFE. Jason Raimondo examines two chunks in the edifice of the structure of military dominance of the culture. (1) the recent decision to allow women into combat roles, which he sees as a triumph of equality over liberty, an “opportunity” for women to share in the [...]
ARE ELDERLY AMERICANS THE “PICTURE OF AFFLUENCE?” Thatfflu is the picture drawn in a new Pew Research study of the “net worth” of American households. The average net worth of seniors of $170,500 seems “affluent” only by contrast with the almost non-existent amount of $ 3,700 for those under 35. With many older people now [...]
THE AFRICAN UNION HAS BECOME AN “ANNEX” OF THE PENTAGON. As Glen Ford noted last June, the expansion of U.S. forces in Africa (AFRICOM) is operating as an “infiltration” exercise of American forces being placed as “guests” of various African nations comprising the African Union. These “guests” are in a peculiar positions for guests: [...]
SIDING WITH THE CHARTER SCHOOL SUGAR DADDIES. This is Bruce Dixon’s description of President Obama’s educational policy. The No Child Left Behind program of school privatization and operation on a corporate accountability measures based on standardized tests results has continued with a vengeance with the Race to the Top policy of the current administration. [...]
‘STUDENTS-FIRST’ HAS AN AGENDA; AND IS A HARSH GRADER OF U.S. STATES ON THEIR COMPLIANCE WITH THAT AGENDA. Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, heads the advocacy group that pushes an “education reform” movement based on downgrading of teacher tenure and promotion of teacher evaluation based on student performance on standardized tests. [...]
HOT TIME AT THE OLD BYRD RESEARCH STATION. Temperature readings at this oceanographic station in southwest Antarctica indicates that the ice cap is heating at twice the rate that climatologists had predicted, raising the image of likely melting that could raise ocean levels by a disastrous ten feet within a few years. (Common Dreams) [...]
GIVING “MATERIAL SUPPORT” TO THE JIHADIST ENEMY: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. As many people languish in detention for such “crimes” as making money donations to Islamist charities, it now emerges that the Obama administration itself provided much military support for “rebel” forces in Libya by way of arms transfers to Qatar which wound up in [...]
PAKISTAN AND THE UNITED STATES: “THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NUCLEAR FAMILY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS.” This is Dilip Hiro’s description of a situation in which, in a country most of whose inhabitants have sharply “anti-American” feelings fueled by drone raids and operations like the one that took out Osama bin Laden, keeps a small arsenal of nuclear weapons ostensibly [...]
ANOTHER “HUMANITARIAN CRISIS” IN LIBYA IS PLAYING OUT IN THE DARK OF WORLD PRESS COVERAGE. Lizzie Phelan details the little-known reality that the “Misrata rebels” whose plight was so much agonized over when they faced “government” extermination while the “Gaddafi regime” was still in place, are now the terrorists in Libya: the targets of [...]
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