This description for Capitalism is the Crisis comes from the website for the film: The 2008 “financial crisis” in the United States was a systemic fraud in which the wealthy finance capitalists stole trillions of public dollars. No one was jailed for this crime, the largest theft of public money in history. Instead, the rich forced working people across the globe to pay for their “crisis” through punitive “austerity” programs that gutted public services and repealed workers’ rights. Austerity was named “Word of the Year” for 2010. This documentary explains the nature of capitalist crisis, visits the protests against austerity measures, and…
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Commentary
This section contains posts that comment on issues, events, and ideas of interest to the authors of this blog.
Universities caught cheating
As this New York Times article makes clear, when universities are forced to compete for money and honors–exactly what their students are forced to compete for–they do exactly what they teach students never to do, namely, cheat. To climb the U.S. News & World Report rankings, universities have been caught twisting the meanings of rules, cherry-picking data or just lying. The most recent example involves Claremont McKenna, which apparently is “the highest-ranking school to have to go through this publicly and have to admit to misreporting.” It is becoming increasingly difficult for universities to provide any moral guidance for students when they…
What real journalism looks like
Just imagine how much better things could be if journalists like Vincent Browne and Amy Goodman were the norm rather than the exception.
Highlights from the Republican debate in Florida
Some selected highlights from the Republican presidential candidate debate, hosted in Florida on the 23.01.2012. Watch Mitt Romney declare that America is the natural leader of the world: http://youtu.be/D4BuTa6rE4I?t=4m5s And Newt Gingrich openly express his opinion that Fidel Castro will undoubtedly go to hell: http://youtu.be/D4BuTa6rE4I?t=40m2s While Rick Sentorum declares Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to be working together with the Jihadists from Iran: http://youtu.be/D4BuTa6rE4I?t=43m43s Ron Paul then steps in and explains why he thinks, Iran’s actions are quite comprehensible: http://youtu.be/D4BuTa6rE4I?t=48m5s And exactly why has the “electability” of the Republican candidate become so much of an issue? Is it more important to…
Should consumers boycott Apple products?
The New York Times, rather surprisingly, published an interesting article recently on the inhumane and unsafe conditions in which Chinese workers are suffering while making products for high-profile, high-tech Western companies like Apple. The conditions there are so bleak that when workers there aren’t being killed by explosions or toxic chemicals they are killing themselves. And those who manage to survive don’t fare much better, working overtime, sleeping in crowded dorms, living effectively in conditions of slavery. The NYT article, and others like it, have received a lot of attention and caused a bit of an image problem for Apple–surprising because…
Former pets become dog meat
If you think you can stomach it, take a look at this video below on the dog meat market in South Korea. If you want to do something about it, visit the website of the Korea Animal Rights Advocates and consider offering some support.
Save Jeju Island
As this article by Matthew Hoey indicates, the protest movement against the military base on Jeju Island in South Korea is the “absolute front line of the struggle for international peace, and is increasingly gaining recognition as such in the minds of leading scholars, activists and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).” According to Hoey, peace activists see the Save Jeju Island campaign as an entirely winnable cause for peace with significant international implications. The following short video by Hoey gives some background on the military base and the resistance movement. To learn more about the movement and how you can contribute to it, visit…
Containing China
Recent headlines from Democracy Now describe the US plans to increase its military presence in the Philippines and the growing opposition movement there. Renato Reyes, spokesperson for the New Patriotic Alliance, states that: “We are very opposed to the plans to re-align and deploy more U.S. troops in the Philippines, and we are very aware that this is in line with the U.S. strategy to build up its armed forces in Asia to counter China. And we feel that the Philippines might be caught in the rising tension between the two countries if we allow the U.S. to base their troops in…
Ron Paul
Ron Paul is a very interesting figure in American politics. Progressives love his foreign policy but hate his economic plans and his positions on domestic issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and health care. Conservatives, on the other hand, love Paul’s domestic agenda of reducing the size of the government, lowering taxes, and abolishing the Federal Reserve, but they seem to hate his non-interventionist foreign policy. So Paul has been received differently by different political groups, but even among liberals and progressives, Paul has generated a significant amount of controversy. Consider Kathy Pollit’s recent essay, which outlines the reasons why…
Israel’s assassins
This article in The Australian claims to provide some of the facts and context surrounding Israel’s latest act of terrorism inside Iran. It reads in part like a crime novel, a murder mystery–except that there is almost no mystery. The act was carried out in broad daylight and everyone seems to know who committed the crime, or at least who is behind it. The authors of this article even seem to know to know precisely who gave the go-ahead orders. The most amazing thing about the story though is how insignificant it has been outside of Iran. The event was noted,…
Keeping the public in the dark about climate change
If enough people were well informed about the reality and likely consequences of climate change the political changes required to bring this problem under control would surely be happening a lot quicker than they are. An important question then is why this problem is still insufficiently appreciated. There are a number of well-known and documented causal factors contributing to public ignorance about climate change. In the first place, according to this recent study by the Daily Climate organization, media coverage of climate change is actually decreasing at the very time (2010, 2011) that it should be increasing. Here is a…
Cancer and economic development
The World Cancer Research Foundation has published a ranking of countries in terms of cancer rates. The list, and a brief discussion of it, can be found in this article published in the Guardian. Interestingly, the top twenty positions on the list are dominated by OECD nations and the full list suggests a fairly strong correlation between cancer rates and a country’s level of economic development: in general (and with few exceptions, such as Singapore), the greater the level of economic development in a country, the higher the incidence of cancer in the population. There is already an abundance of…
Even the IMF is now questioning capitalism
Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University, and former chief economist at the IMF recently published two interesting articles on Project Syndicate: Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable? and Rethinking the Growth Imperative. The articles, which are worth reading in full, are not at all what one would expect from a former chief economist at the IMF. Here are a few excerpts: From Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?: It is ironic that modern capitalist societies engage in public campaigns to urge individuals to be more attentive to their health, while fostering an economic ecosystem that seduces many consumers into an extremely…
The internet filter bubble
Thanks to Google’s search engine we now have the ability to retrieve instantly a massive amount of information on virtually any topic or any question we might have. On the surface, it seems that we are all better informed and more knowledgeable as a result of Google. But are we? Consider the fact that Google recognizes users and collects information on their digital behavior–their favorite searches, articles they have read on Google news, and even their choice of words. Everything is recorded, the pattern is analyzed, and a user profile is created. Then, when you perform a search, Google tries to find…
Obama signs Defense Authorization Bill
President Obama used the last day of 2011 to sign the defense authorization bill, formally ending weeks of heated debate in Congress and intense lobbying by the administration. Obama’s main justification is found in his signing statement: I have signed the Act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, and vital national security programs that must be renewed. Yet many have decried the bill’s language that would allow indefinite detention for suspected terrorists without a trial–including Americans arrested in the United States. Among those…
Situationism and “The Protester”
Dan Hind, author of The Return of the Public and The Threat to Reason and this year’s winner of the Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize, expressed his opinion on Situationism and the Occupy Movements in AlJazeera’s Opinion Space. While the whole article is worth reading, here are some quotes: In the years after the World War II, the US and Western Europe saw unprecedented rates of sustained economic growth. Food and accommodation were cheap and working people could afford a vast range of novel commodities – electronic gadgets, cars, new styles in furniture and opportunities for leisure. Decades of war, depression and social…
Finkelstein on the passing of Hitchens
Here’s Norman commenting on the death of Christopher Hitchens. He certainly has a way with words. Even some of the critical commentary on Hitchens’s passing pays tribute to his robust atheism, which no doubt shocked readers of Vanity Fair. But the ultimate irony seems to have gone over everyone’s head. When I first learned that Hitchens was diagnosed with an excruciating and terminal cancer, it caused me to doubt my atheism. Could it be merely chance? The news came just as Hitchens was about to go on a book tour for his long-awaited memoir. It was as if he was…
How the media manipulates information
Since most people have at least some awareness of how the media can manipulate and distort information, the tricks and methods showcased in this short YouTube video are not exactly shocking. They are nevertheless revealing and always worth bearing in mind.
Democracy Now
Democracy Now News Feed
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