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Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 16:51

The arrest of two heavily armed French neo-Nazis returning from Ukraine highlights a looming problem for NATO states sponsoring the proxy war, and their conspiracy of silence on the nature of the threat. On April 24th 2023, two French neo-Nazis were jailed for 15 months, nine of which were suspended, for possessing assault rifle ammunition. The pair had returned to Paris from Ukraine two days earlier, and were arrested at customs. Both were on the radar of French domestic spying […]

The post Neo-Nazi terror threat grows as Ukraine fighters jailed in France appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 16:28

A Ukrainian media group partnered with BBC, Der Spiegel and other Western outlets polled readers on which Russian intellectual should be assassinated following a car bomb attack on writer Zakhar Prilepin. The Biden administration has greenlit Kiev’s campaign of terror. Hours after Russian writer and activist Zakhar Prilepin was nearly killed in a targeted car bomb, a popular Ukrainian news agency submitted a poll that asked its readers, “Who do you think should be next in the Russian pantheon of […]

The post Ukrainian media asks ‘who should be next’ after car bombing of Russian writer appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 12:16

 

On 17th April, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra conferred on me the title of Doctor Honoris Causa, at a public ceremony. I attended online since I am not able to travel long-distance at present. UPF is a major public university in Barcelona, named for Pompeu Fabra, a celebrated linguist who was a key figure in the Catalan cultural revival of the early 20th century.

 

For an academic worker, an honorary doctorate is a public recognition of one's contribution to a field of knowledge, but also, importantly, a recognition of the field itself and its value. In this case, the study of social hierarchies of class and gender, the study of masculinities, and struggles for social justice and peace.

 

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 10:00
If you want to understand what’s wrong with out politics, look no further than this chart YouGov survey: The only news the right fully trusts are propaganda outfits, Breitbart, The Federalist, Fox News, OAN and Newsmax. Astonishingly, more Democrats than Republicans trust right wing rags like the National Review, Washington Examiner and the Daily Caller. These people are living way down deep in the wingnut rabbit hole and they have completely lost touch with reality.
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 08:30
Biden may have no choice There’s a lot of talk these days about Biden citing the 14th amendment to unilaterally lift the debt ceiling if it comes down to that. (Actually it’s just him directing the treasury dept. to pay the bills the government has incurred.) I thought you might be interested in this analysis of the subject by legal expert Garret Epps: John Perry, a wealthy patriot, boosted the American war effort in 1918 by subscribing to the Fourth Liberty Loan. For $10,000, he bought a bond payable in 1934 “in United States gold coin of the present standard of value.” By Perry’s calculation of the price of gold, that meant that in 1934 he was entitled to a payback in the value of $16,931.25.   Unfortunately for Perry, U.S. dollars were no longer backed by gold in 1934, and there were no legal gold coins. Among the effects of the Great Depression was radical deflation—as money got scarcer, those who still had dollars could buy more goods and services than before the crash. So, on June 5, 1933, Congress passed a Joint Resolution declaring such “gold clauses” invalid.
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 07:00
He was also a Nazi We know now that he was a white supremacist incel. Here’s one of his posts on social media: It sounds like some kind of joke. (He even mentions that Hitler got Germany out of an economic recession!) But it’s not. This guy’s social media is full of stuff like this. He hits all the talking points. I hope that monster “Libs of Tik Tok” feels good about herself today. She really helped save the children last weekend.
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 06:00

In 1976, Robert Gilpin distinguished three contrasting political economy perspectives: liberalism, Marxism, and mercantilism. Gilpin introduced these International Relations-derived categories as theories and ideologies of political economy, sometimes conceived either as explanatory models or future scenarios. He recognises that the three ideologies ‘define the conflicting perspectives’ that actors have, but he does not go as far as to theorise how the perspectives may be part of the dynamics of the world economy and generative of its history and future. Gilpin’s models, scenarios, and theories are thus mainly cognitive attempts to understand reality from the outside. Since Gilpin’s main works, a large number of critical and constructivist International Political Economy (IPE) and Global Political Economy (GPE) approaches have arisen, stressing the constitutive role of ideas and performativity of theories. Many of these studies, however, tend to focus on aspects of contemporary matters or specific issues and fall short of analysing broad historical developments and, most markedly, causation.

Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 05:30
“Seizing political control of the schools is not a campaign slogan. It’s a plan to turn power into more power” The right has been attacking public education as long as anyone can remember. It’s usually about unions or dumbing down and losing to the Chinese or something like that. But as Jonathan Chait writes in this excellent article about what’s actually happening in today’s right wing assault on education, they have now decided that academic freedom is for losers — they are convinced that it’s time to completely take over American education and indoctrinate children into right wing ideology. The article is long so I’d recommend that you read it in full if you can but suffice to say that Chait makes many good points about the historical antecedents of various attempts to dominate education and points out that there are excesses on the left as well as right.
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 04:56
It has been only in recent times that we have had former prime ministers taking up positions in foreign countries, even working for foreign governments. It ought to be regarded as deeply shameful, and more than somewhat disloyal. If our public stewards cannot be trusted to do the right thing, it becomes necessary to control Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 04:55
As the two major parties continue to debate which of them is pursing a policy of ‘big Australia’, Treasury has quietly forced both of them to accept its preferred long-term net migration target of 235,000 per annum – net migration, that is the difference between long-term arrivals and departures, is the key driver of Australia’s Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 04:54
Gabriel Sherman’s cover story in Vanity Fair – ‘Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama’ – has generated a lot of attention, and with good reason. Murdoch runs one of the most powerful but also one of the most secretive media corporations in the English-speaking world. Sherman is a well-connected and well-respected journalist in New York. He Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 04:53
A dear friend, amazing mentor and an invaluable China Matters board director who was instrumental to ensuring independent voices on China issues were still alive in Australia. In the many tributes written about Allan Gyngell over the past two days, he has been hailed as a brilliant mind and an outstanding Australian who made an Continue reading »