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Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 23:33

The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner offers “freedom” from Putin’s labor camps only to send those released convicts to the front lines of the conflict, often on brutal suicide missions. At least the Russian president and his state-run media make no secret of his regime’s alliance with Wagner. The American government, on the other hand, seldom acknowledges its own version of the privatization of war — the tens of thousands of private security contractors it’s used... Read more

Source: The Army We Don’t See appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 23:00
Culture wars are real ones We should have taken her more seriously. It was the summer of 2018 when a Twitter user named Amanda Blount inadvertantly launched a viral meme mocking Alex Jones’ claim that Democrats were planning to launch a second civil war over the July 4th holiday to unseat President Trump. Mimicking the Ken Burns miniseries, lefties had a field day with #secondcivilwarletters. Since then, “every accusation is a confession” has gained traction on the left. What conservatives accuse the left of doing is often what the extremist right is actually doing. A second civil war by “patriots” could look like the scattered, low-grade terrorism actually playing out across the country every day. Jeff Sharlet’s “January 6 Was Only the Beginning” appeared in the July/August 2022 issue of Vanity Fair. But hearing his audiobook reading in “The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War” delivers more punch. He lived it. He was there. At a Sacramento rally for MAGA martyr Ashli Babbitt.
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 22:00

Have you, yourself, described it as being bespoke?

If yes, it is absolutely bespoke.

If not, it might still be bespoke. Don’t get discouraged.

Was this item/experience/thing made specifically for you?

If so, congrats. It’s by definition bespoke.

If not, could you potentially lie to people and say it was made specifically for you? If you do this effectively and they believe you, then the item is (essentially) bespoke. As they say, bespoke is in the eye of the bespeaker.

Did you buy it off an Instagram advertisement?

It’s definitely bespoke. All items mass-produced and sold on Instagram legally have to be bespoke.

If not, did you buy it from Joanna Gaines’s Hearth & Hand Target collection? If yes, it’s bespoke too. If not, what’s your beef with Chip and Joanna? Do happy and successful couples make you feel insecure? Doesn’t sound like a very bespoke opinion to me.

Were you wearing a funny hat when you bought the bespoke item?

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 20:11

We mark the fifth anniversary of Tribune’s relaunch in 2023, a landmark we will celebrate at the annual rally this September. It has been a hard road   — when we inherited the magazine it had no subscriber list, no money, and no functioning website. Today, it is the largest socialist publication in Britain since the […]

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 20:09

In the 1970s, there were more than fifty industrial correspondents reporting the day-to-day news of the trade union movement. The Financial Times alone employed six on its labour desk. The period marked the high-water mark of British trade unionism, with 13 million members. The decline of trade union membership in the wake of Thatcherism and […]

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 20:00

Since their industrial dispute kicked off last year, posties have been on the picket line day after day. But the loss of wages amidst a cost-of-living crisis hasn’t been their only obstacle. Determined to break their union — the Communication Workers Union (CWU) — Royal Mail management has unleashed a months-long crackdown on their workforce. From sacking […]

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 19:59

In 1970, the Conservative government led by Edward Heath launched the most significant attack on trade unions in a generation. The preceding decade had been one of prosperity for British workers, with rising living standards, growing wages, and historically low unemployment. It was also a period of industrial calm, with relatively few strikes. But towards […]

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 19:56

Mass protests engulfed Israel after the new government announced its plans to reform the country’s independent judiciary. Every week since January hundreds of thousands of Israelis have marched through the streets of major cities or participated in acts of civil disobedience — blocking highways, engaging in mass ongoing general strikes — to show their opposition to the […]

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 19:55

Since the 2019 general election, there have been three Conservative Party leaders and prime ministers. While each professed to represent a clean break from their predecessors — whether on the economy, defence, or crime — there has been one alarming consistency in the respective policy prescriptions: the assault on civil liberties. The proposed ‘Anti-Boycott Bill’ embodies precisely […]