[TomDispatch and StatORec Literary Journal are sharing the publication of this article.] Looking into the long reflecting pool of the past, I find myself wondering what it was that made me an activist against injustice. I was born in New York City’s poor, rundown, and at times dangerous South Bronx, where blacks, whites, and Latinos (as well as recent immigrants from Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe) lived side by side or, perhaps more accurately, crowded together. I was the middle child of four siblings, not counting the foster children my mother often cared for. My father worked six days a week in a leather factory where the rat-tat-tatting of sewing machines never stopped and layoffs were a constant reality. I... Read more
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I don’t know if you have the stomach to watch any of Trump’s rally yesterday but at least read this if you don’t. It’s really gotten Nurembergesque: Former President Donald J. Trump drew a crowd of thousands on Saturday to a quiet South Carolina town’s Independence Day event, where he assailed the integrity of major American institutions and painted a dark portrait of the country ahead of a holiday meant to celebrate its underpinnings. Speaking for nearly 90 minutes on Main Street in Pickens, S.C., with at least 20 American flags behind his back, Mr. Trump often eschewed the rhetorical flag-waving and calls for unity that have long been as central to Independence Day as hot dogs, baseball and fireworks. Instead, the twice-impeached and twice-indicted former president railed against Democrats and liberals, who he said threatened to rewrite America’s past and erase its future. He skewered federal law enforcement, which he accused without evidence of rampant corruption. And he attacked President Biden, enumerating what he saw as his character flaws and accusing him of taking bribes from foreign nations.
Elon thinks you should STFU I wish we didn’t have to pay attention to this moron. But his influence is huge as twitter owner and he’s making everything even more terrible than it already was.
“If the worst thing that faces the people of Taiwan would be what prevails in Hong Kong today, then we haven’t got a cause for war. … Hong Kong still has substantially its own system and if that were the outcome that applied in Taiwan, then I can live with that,” says former Australian Minister Continue reading »
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and French President Emmanuel Macron invited world leaders to Paris on June 22-23 to reach a new “global pact” to finance the fight against poverty and human-induced climate change. All kudos for the ambition, yet few dollars were put on the table. To an important extent, the continuing global failure Continue reading »
In a significant, scholarly book ‘Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine’, Dr. Nick Riemer describes Palestinian civil society as ‘among the most strangulated and oppressed on the planet.’ On June 26 in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Gideon Levy writes, ‘There aren’t many populations in the world as helpless as the Palestinians who live in their Continue reading »
All Victorians are now invited to be part of truth telling by making a submission to the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Submissions had previously been open to First Peoples only. Yoorrook is the first Royal Commission in Australia planned and led by First Peoples and is the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Continue reading »
It took a Ministerial review to say what should have been blindingly obvious to each of Sydney Trains, the Transport Asset Holding Entity, Transport for NSW and Treasury: the timetable is defective and there is a maintenance backlog evidenced by a reported 40,000 infrastructure defects. Little reviews The NSW Government commissioned a series of little Continue reading »
US, UK, EU should amend humanitarian exemptions to facilitate aid. (Beirut) – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union should urgently renew the earthquake-related humanitarian exemptions they introduced to their Syria sanctions’ regimes in February 2023 to more effectively facilitate aid to the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Continue reading »
Blinken’s trip was followed by Biden’s insults, the promising Bali summit was followed by further China containment measures. Clearly, Washington has yet to show Beijing it is sincere in its efforts. Every Chinese is taught from a young age, through the country’s history and culture, to be a person of integrity, to walk the talk, Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – July 2, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
War
The Darkness Ahead: Where The Ukraine War Is Headed
John Mearsheimer [via Naked Capitalism 7-1-2023]
The real casualties of Russia’s ‘civil war’: the Beltway expert class
Max Blumenthal [The Grayzone, via Naked Capitalism 6-29-2023]
Yikes: In another era of politics, Republican presidential hopefuls may have hesitated before hitching their brands to an organization whose members have harassed and threatened opponents, fantasized about enacting gun violence, mingled with known extremist groups, quoted Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in their materials, and earned a designation as an anti-government hate group. It’s safe to say that time is long gone. Five 2024 candidates traveled to the birthplace of the United States to take turns auditioning for the support of a sold-out crowd of Moms for Liberty activists and rhetorically kissing the rings of the group’s co-founders, former school board members Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, at their “Joyful Warriors” conference in Philadelphia this week. It’s little surprise; Moms for Liberty has emerged as a juggernaut in the conservative movement since its inception two years ago.
Alan Arkin was a part of my childhood. He lived in Chappaqua, where I grew up. His son Tony was in my grade. Arkin used to come to our elementary school, I’m guessing, though I can’t remember for sure, for something like career day. He’d be spotted around town. More important to me was “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.” Not only was it one of my favorite movies as a kid; it was also one of my dad’s. It’s one of the few movies where I remember my dad laughing out loud. The other was Mel Brooks’s “Spaceballs.” Anyway, I have fond memories of my dad and I laughing through “The Russians Are Coming.” In memory of […]
South Carolina, y’all Yup. Pretty much like this: In which a local deploys a metaphor: Sen. Lindsey Graham is from Central, SC where he once tended bar. Central is just south of Pickens. (I lived in Central, a former mill village, for a stretch in the mid-1980s.) Lindsey seems to have outlived his usefulness to local MAGA foot soldiers. Nobody gets indoctrinated around these parts. Hell, no: Back in the day, the weekly Mountain Monitor of Travelers Rest used to document the weekly car wrapped around a tree and feature (IIRC) articles borrowed from The Thunderbolt (Klan), the apparent voice of truth in America. Since then, T.R. (just north of Greenville) has gentrified some. Pickens, less so, apparently. Southern Poverty Law Center on the National Justice Party.
Feels like another big one Here’s an eye-catching headline: Man cited in Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case says he was never involved. In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Lorie Smith, a Colorado web designer who objected to building a wedding web site for a gay couple … that did not exist. Wait, what?! Washington Post: Lorie Smith filed her initial case to Colorado district court in 2016, arguing that the state’s anti-discrimination law prevented her from including a message on the webpage for her company, 303 Creative, stating that she would not create wedding websites for gay couples. In subsequent court documents, her lawyers cited a query that they said was sent by an individual named Stewart with contact information that matches the person The Post interviewed. The request asked for Smith’s services for Stewart’s forthcoming wedding to a person named “Mike.” “We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website,” the message cited in the case read.
The MVC team discusses the military drama about a racially motivated murder during WWII.
Pro-business politicians embraced the idea of so-called green investing — until the SEC suggested companies should report their full emissions.
The post The Right’s Desperate Push to Tank ESG and Avoid Disclosing Climate Risks appeared first on The Intercept.
Όπως φαντάζεστε, αυτές τις μέρες δέχομαι συνεχείς προσκλήσεις να σχολιάσω την παραίτηση του Αλέξη Τσίπρα. Πέραν μιας σύντομης ανάρτησης δεν έχω να προσθέσω κάτι. Ίσως όμως βοηθήσει τον δημόσιο διάλογο, ιδίως εντός της Αριστεράς, η αναπαραγωγή ενός κειμένου στο οποίο είχα πασχίσει να καταγράψω, χωρίς κανένα πάθος ή φόβο, όσα κατανόησα για τον άνθρωπο. [Ακολουθεί […]
The post Αντί σχολίου περί παραίτησης Τσίπρα: Δύο σύντροφοι-αινίγματα (απόσπασμα από το ΑΝΙΚΗΤΟΙ ΗΤΤΗΜΕΝΟΙ, 2017) appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
Following Greece’s latest election, after which Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation, a journalist asked me: “What conclusion do you draw from this situation?” Here is my answer: The crucial conclusion to be drawn is that radicals are never welcomed for long into the club of the powerful, even if they are willing to betray their […]
The post Alexis Tsipras resigns: lessons for progressives appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
YOUTH Leading The World (YLTW) Coffs Coast, organised by OzGREEN, takes place 9am-4pm Wednesday 12 July to 9am-4pm Thursday 13 July at The Link, Toormina. The YLTW gathering is a free two-day event bringing together young people aged 12 to 25 who are interested in the environment and sustainability. Advertise with News of The Area...
The post Youth Leading The World Coffs Coast gather to plan action on social change appeared first on News Of The Area.