Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

Jill Filipovic: The US Supreme Court has become an illegitimate institution / Rhiannon Cosslett: Overturning of Roe v Wade is state-sanctioned forced birth

Of the nine justices sitting on the current court, five were appointed by presidents who initially lost the popular vote; four of those judges signed onto the majority opinion that overturned Roe, and one penned a separate concurrence to uphold the Mississippi anti-abortion law. The three appointed by Donald Trump were confirmed by senators who… Read More Jill Filipovic: The US Supreme Court has become an illegitimate institution / Rhiannon Cosslett: Overturning of Roe v Wade is state-sanctioned forced birth

Dilip

The American Judiciary is 'pro-life' and loves guns. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition

January 6 wasn’t the end of the fascist revolt against democracy. We’re watching democracy be taken away not by Proud Boys waving batons, but by conservative justices who hide their grotesque anti-democratic views behind the trappings of the Supreme Court.   The end of Roe v. Wade: American democracy is collapsing  Judges appointed by popular vote-losing… Read More The American Judiciary is 'pro-life' and loves guns. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition

Dilip

Slavoj Zizek and the Terminal Collapse of the Anti-War Left. By Jonathan Cook

The US has 800 military bases around the world. The rest of the world has 30 outside of its own borders.   Washington learned a hard lesson from the unpopularity of its 2003 attack on Iraq aimed at controlling more of the Middle East’s oil reserves. Ordinary people do not like seeing the public coffers ransacked… Read More Slavoj Zizek and the Terminal Collapse of the Anti-War Left. By Jonathan Cook

Dilip

UK Railway Workers Begin Largest Strike in 30 Years

Train stations across the United Kingdom and the London Underground remained closed or inoperative on Tuesday. Striking railway and transport workers are demanding better salaries in the context of a sharp increase in prices. Inflation in the country currently stands at 9.2 percent, and could reach upwards of 11 percent in the fall when energy and… Read More UK Railway Workers Begin Largest Strike in 30 Years

Dilip

Roland Barthes in China; or how to plumb the depths of professorial vacuity…

ROLAND BARTHES IN CHINA    (Simon Leys; re-published in his book of essays: The Hall of Uselessness, 2014) Sed perseverare… (To err is human, (but) to persist is diabolical) IN APRIL and May of 1974, Roland Barthes made a trip to China with a small group of his friends from the review Tel Quel. This visit coincided… Read More Roland Barthes in China; or how to plumb the depths of professorial vacuity…

Dilip

From Theresa May to Priti Patel – a decade of cruelty. By Kamila Shamsie

In 2001, the Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah published By the Sea, the story of Saleh Omar, a man who arrives at Gatwick airport as a refugee. The border official he speaks to says his parents also came to Britain as refugees, “But my parents are European, they have a right, they’re part of the family.”… Read More From Theresa May to Priti Patel – a decade of cruelty. By Kamila Shamsie

Dilip

Capitalism + lies = mass death / America’s Second Civil War is Underway

Trump’s attempted coup continues…. The Republican party’s biggest backers – such as billionaire Peter Thiel, who has donated tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of big lie candidates JD Vance and Blake Masters – show no sign of reducing their backing in light of the committee’s findings. Big corporations continue to write fat… Read More Capitalism + lies = mass death / America’s Second Civil War is Underway

Dilip

Deepanshu Mohan: American gun violence is the result of an economy aimed at maximising self-interest

Factoring in the value of human life and ethical considerations in economic and social policy making could bring about change. “To allow the market mechanism to be sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment… would result in the demolition of society,” warned political economist Karl Polanyi in his book The Great… Read More Deepanshu Mohan: American gun violence is the result of an economy aimed at maximising self-interest

Dilip

Young people go to European court to stop treaty that aids fossil fuel investors

Young victims of the climate crisis will on Tuesday launch legal action at Europe’s top human rights court against an energy treaty that protects fossil fuel investors. Five people, aged between 17 and 31, who have experienced devastating floods, forest fires and hurricanes are bringing a case to the European court of human rights, where they… Read More Young people go to European court to stop treaty that aids fossil fuel investors

Dilip