“OUR GOAL WAS TO SHUT DOWN A PORTION OF AMERICA FOR A WHOLE DAY.” Producer of a new TV series, “House of Cards,” says this with a “laugh,” but it is no laughing matter to TV producers who are catering to a new kind of “binge-watching” among fans of particular TV programs. Rather than [...]
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN LOOKS AT THE GLOBE AND FINDS TURMOIL AND THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT IN THE “MIDDLE RUN” FUTURE. While predictions for a given year are a “fool’s mission” and those for centuries in the future only too easy to make, those for the “middle run” of a decade or so hence are subject to [...]
OBAMA’S DIGESTION: DOES HE “HAVE THE STOMACH TO CARRY ON ANOTHER WAR?” Apparently so, says Jason Hirthler, as he notes the bi-partisan “imperial lockstep” between the two major parties as, for example, Defense Secretary Panetta places cruise missiles in Turkey for its conflict with Syria, and State Secretary Clinton jiggles the nerves by talking of [...]
THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF HURRICANE SANDY. While much of the media is focused breathlessly on the aftermath of winds and storm surge that battered New York and New Jersey during this week’s landfall of “super storm” Sandy, the hurricane’s first stop is generally ignored by the rest of the world. Before it threatened [...]
HEATHROW’S “SNOW PLAN” LOOKS A LOT LIKE A NO-PLAN. (UK Independent) The London airport goes 0 for 2 in responses to major snowstorms. Despite massive investment in new snow plows following the debacle of air travel grounding following a snow storm last winter, the current one disrupts travel plans of thousand of passengers, stranding some [...]
While the country sits in the grip of a historic recession and economic downturn, numerous states are taking aim at the victims of this crisis and placing unprecedented — and potentially unconstitutional — new burdens on those that rely on government aid to survive. Proposed in 36 states and signed into law among a smaller [...]
“GEORGIA WORK$” DOESN’T WORK: “RIGHT NOW, FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT LAW WOULD, WE THINK, PROHIBIT THIS KIND OF PROGRAM.“ With President Obama set to deliver what has been billed as a major speech to Congress and the nation on Thursday regarding jobs, the White House is searching for new programs the president can propose meant to stimulate [...]
If you don’t have a job, you’re out of luck; even Democrats on Capitol Hill are joining the chorus of conservatives in opposing federal unemployment benefits for individuals facing over one year without work. It’s a shift that will likely have devastating implications for millions of Americans as soon as next January. The irony of [...]
IF DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY, ISRAEL MAY BECOME THE LAST REMAINING SUPERPOWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST. (Asia Times) This is the perspective of an Asia Times writer called “Spengler,” who notes the much higher rates of fertility among the Jewish as opposed to the Arab people of the region. Of course this emergence of Israel as [...]
“CLUELESSNESS IS A CONSTANT IN U.S. FOREIGN-POLICY MAKING.” (Counterpunch) So says James Bovard, noting that the floundering U.S. effort in Libya is based once again on the advice of foreign policy “experts” who have no clear idea of the likely outcomes of their recommended actions. All this is laid bare in periodic exposes of official [...]
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