Reading

Created
Tue, 02/05/2023 - 23:27

“In order to fully recover, we must first recover the society that has made us sick.” I can still hear those prophetic words, now a quarter-century old, echoing through the Church Center of the United Nations. At the podium was David, a leader with New Jerusalem Laura, a residential drug recovery program in North Philadelphia that was free and accessible to people, no matter their insurance and income status. It was June 1998 and hundreds of poor and low-income people had gathered for the culminating event of the “New Freedom Bus Tour: Freedom from Unemployment, Hunger, and Homelessness,” a month-long, cross-country organizing event led by welfare rights activists. Two years earlier, President Bill Clinton had signed welfare “reform” into law,... Read more

Created
Tue, 02/05/2023 - 23:00
When governing is not your agenda If Jared Leto in “a head-to-toe, mascot-style cat costume” at the Met Gala doesn’t satisfy your appetite for weird, there are always Republican governors. Jamelle Bouie gazes upon attempts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to make a trip to Florida the next best thing to vacationing on another planet. Be warned: Planet Ron is fighting an outbreak of the “woke mind virus.” DeSantis warns Ronians with little exposure to Earth 1 that the infection is “a form of cultural Marxism that tries to divide us based on identity politics.” Bouie wonders what Ronians make of that (New York Times): Now, I can follow this as a professional internet user and political observer. I know that “woke mind virus” is a term of art for the (condescending and misguided) idea that progressive views on race and gender are an outside contagion threatening the minds of young people who might otherwise reject structural explanations of racial inequality and embrace a traditional vision of the gender binary. I know that “cultural Marxism” is a right-wing buzzword meant to sound scary and imposing.
Created
Tue, 02/05/2023 - 22:00

Good morrow, traveler. Ah, it appears your long and arduous journey has reached a most perilous fork in the road. Your only way forward is through one of these two doors.

One leads to freedom, the other certain death. But which to choose?

You may ask us a single question. Although, be warned. One guard always lies, the other always tells the truth.

Oh, and uh, this next part is unrelated to the door bit. Someone’s been spreading this totally unfounded rumor that I have a small penis. And I just want to assure you this is not true.

Now, choose wisely, dear traveler, for your ver—

No, as I said, my penis has nothing to do with the doors. Let’s not get stuck on this. Remember, your life hangs in the balance. I was only saying that if, during your time in the Village of Sorrow, you had spoken to, say, a vindictive Bal maiden or her twin sister, and they said I had an unusually small and odorous member, they are liars. My penis is a good size and smells of jasmine. Besides, most peasant women I have known biblically say the big ones hurt.

Created
Tue, 02/05/2023 - 09:48

In this episode of their program Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss de-dollarization, the global drive to drop the US dollar, and the transition away from financialized neoliberalism toward a new economic system. You can find more episodes of the Geopolitical Economy Hour here. Podcast Transcript (smoothed) RADHIKA DESAI: Hi everyone, welcome Continue Reading

The post The QE Quandry first appeared on Michael Hudson.
Created
Tue, 02/05/2023 - 08:30
This piece by Jenny Boylan is a super important read if you want to understand what transgenderism really is all about. I would imagine that most who read this site believe that all people should have the right to live their lives as they choose and support the rights of transgender people to live freely in our society. This goes much deeper: There they are, in their Chevrolet Colorado, five dudes bouncing up and down as the truck grinds through the rugged American high country. Two guys up front, three in the back. Shania Twain is blasting. The fellow in the middle is singing along. “Oh, I want to be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel. Man, I feel like a woman!” The other guys look deeply worried. But the person in the back just keeps happily singing away, even as the dude next to him moves his leg away. Just to be on the safe side. This commercial aired back in 2004, and even now it’s not clear to me if it’s offensive or empowering, hilarious or infuriating. Twain says she wrote “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” after working at a resort where some drag queens were performing. “That song started with the title,” she said.
Created
Tue, 02/05/2023 - 08:24
Yesterday was May Day, celebrated as the Labour Day public holiday here in Queensland. And this week, appropriately enough I’m giving two presentations on the case for a four-day working week, one to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, a business-oriented thinktank, and one to a parliamentary inquiry. I started writing a post about […]