Showing all posts tagged United States
Privatisation running rampant in “liberal” American cities
When there is largely bi-partisan support for the false God of privatisation (to increase “efficiency”) we shouldn’t be surprised, as Salon reports, that America is being transformed with little public discussion: If you’ve listened to a political pundit predict any election in the last 50 years, you’ve been told that there are Republican small towns…
Desperate Greece still needed to produce deadly weapons
Sigh (via The Independent): As Greece is forced by European leaders to abandon a referendum to allow the people the chance to vote on its latest bailout conditions, the country is preparing for yet another dose of austerity. The conditions of the next €130bn rescue package will be severe, yet there is an elephant in…
The complicated Wikileaks web (and why they must survive)
In typically idiosyncratic style, David Carr writes in the New York Times – hardly a paper with much respect for Wikileaks for most of this year – outlines the myriad of issues faced by Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Regardless, we must defend transparency in government and challenge the inherent secrecy of “democracies”: Let’s concede that…
Israel has a fund-raising problem (funny what endless occupation does to the image)
Hello Zionist lobby, any thoughts on why anybody with honesty would want to blindly support a state that proudly demonises the Palestinian people? Haaretz reports: It is getting increasingly difficult to persuade donors, especially younger ones, to give money for Israel – this was the main conclusion one could draw from a series of “round…
Why WikiLeaks forces accountability on the insular journalistic and political club
Last week I was invited down to Canberra to give the keynote speech at the Independent Scholars Association of Australia 2011 Conference. It was held at the National Library to an appreciative audience. The following are my notes: -… … … … … … Quote from Julian Assange, The UnAuthorised Autobiography, p. 119/120 + 168 -… … … … … … … What is modern journalism…
#Occupy hits Harvard
Well, this is very interesting: In recent years, Greg Mankiw noticed that the students who took his economics class at Harvard seemed overly concerned about preparing for their careers. That appeared to change this week. On Wednesday, about 70 of his students walked out of Economics 10, the introductory class he teaches, to protest what…
What the Left must understand about the #Occupy movement
It’s not enough to simply talk about inequality and play within a system designed and rigged by the usual political players. The real Left must get far more imaginative. This is a good piece in Le Monde Diplomatique that demands more: The Occupy Wall Street protests in the US are also directed against the Street’s…
When the state fails, citizens using private security is sure way to chaos
This is what our society is becoming; unaccountable forces that will push an aggressive agenda in the name of “efficiency”. Why not just privatise everything? Foley residents will call a private security company when they need nonemergency help, starting in January. On Tuesday, Foley City Council members unanimously approved hiring a private security company to…