The Violent Urge for Supremacy in the World’s Two Largest Democracies

Priti Gulati and Stan Cox TomDispatch May 23, 2023 Let me offer a small prediction: between this moment when I’m writing the introduction to Priti Gulati and Stan Cox’s new piece and the moment, a few days from now, when it’s actually posted at TomDispatch, the question isn’t whether there will be another mass shooting in… Read More The Violent Urge for Supremacy in the World’s Two Largest Democracies

Look at what hedge funds really do – and tell me capitalism is about ‘rewarding risk’

Brett Christophers Coming up with economic policy is a difficult, unforgiving task. To make the best of it, it helps to work with an accurate model of how the economy works. If you use a misleading model and act on it, you can’t reasonably expect good outcomes: in that scenario, we end up, as JM… Read More Look at what hedge funds really do – and tell me capitalism is about ‘rewarding risk’

How Big Oil is Manipulating the Way You Think About Climate Change

NB: To begin with, its global warming, not ‘climate change’, the term is itself an example of Orwellian manipulation. DS By Kathleen Dean Moore / Salon In medieval times, gamekeepers trained dogs to the hunt by setting them on the trail of a dead rabbit they had dragged through the forest. Once the dogs were baying… Read More How Big Oil is Manipulating the Way You Think About Climate Change

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez torches Big Pharma’s ‘out-of-control’ and ‘predatory’ profiteering

United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) decried the massive profits of the pharmaceutical industry during a House hearing on Tuesday, arguing that the public should be given the option to buy into government programs like Medicare. “I believe that the profit-seeking motive in the pharmaceutical industry is out of control, and I think that… Read More Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez torches Big Pharma’s ‘out-of-control’ and ‘predatory’ profiteering

Racism in Australian media

Christopher Knaus Stan Grant walks away from presenting job at the national broadcaster, after coverage of the King’s coronation prompted torrent of vitriol It was a moment of reckoning. Stan Grant, one of Australia’s most prominent Indigenous journalists, stared down the barrel of a live camera, stony-faced and red-eyed, to explain why he was stepping… Read More Racism in Australian media

Centre-left politics has been dealt a crushing blow in Greece. What can we learn from it?

Marina Prentoulis New Democracy’s victory was not unexpected, but the eye-watering share of the vote the party received is a different matter. The conservative government often points to its record of growth and investment, backed by European Commission forecasts, but the proceeds of this have not been felt evenly: a growing number of Greece’s population over… Read More Centre-left politics has been dealt a crushing blow in Greece. What can we learn from it?

Alternatives to the nationalism of the conspicuously ignorant: Markha Valenta

First posted July 14, 2012 The word ‘nationalism’ itself dates from the early nineteenth century and marked the increasing use of national identity in order to make political claims. So to argue that national identity is pre-political is itself a political statement.  It is becoming chic among some of Europe’s young elites to call for… Read More Alternatives to the nationalism of the conspicuously ignorant: Markha Valenta

CADTM-Newsletter: Indian labourers, France’s mobilisations, Illegitimate debts, Vulture funds…

NB: This is an excellent portal for regular political/economic commentary on world affairs. This one has many essays on South Asia. The generalised implosion of political institutions is a symptom of the endemic unsustainability of global capitalism. Unfortunately this state of affairs will continue (ie the ruling establishments will carry on with their ‘austerity economics’; violent… Read More CADTM-Newsletter: Indian labourers, France’s mobilisations, Illegitimate debts, Vulture funds…

Breaking the cycle

Whether defending human rights on an international stage, checking facts from the frontline, processing traumatic experiences over a lifetime, or even questioning the language you have spoken since childhood – all matter in the collective fight for justice. Eurozine Editorial – Sarah Waring Invading and absconding with children, indoctrinating them, destroying artefacts and literature, forcibly… Read More Breaking the cycle