Link Blog
Pearls and Irritations have an excellent post about The Invisible Doctrine by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. The new book, a critique of neoliberalism as the ideological source of the myriad crises we now face.
The book argues passionately for urgent system change, away from the control currently exercised by profit makers, and the need to strengthen governance and how the economy operates, though expanded participatory democracy. This is a well written, quite brief book that deserves a wide readership by those of us concerned about the many crises that now threaten our human future.
The hard truth that needs to be confronted by America today: white nationalism is alive and thriving.. Erin Aubry Kaplan at the Los Angeles Times:
Here’s the hard truth of the last eight years: America leans at least as much toward white nationalism as it does toward democracy (and that’s being optimistic). Nobody says it out loud, on either side, which is obscuring the real shape of Showdown 2024.
The GOP cult is clearly racist and anti-equality but claims not to be, despite rapidly mounting evidence to the contrary.
How the 1990s broke politics - Vox
If you were to write the history of modern American conservatism, where would you start? Maybe somewhere in the 1930s just before WW2? Or maybe you begin with the Cold War and anti-communism?
Cases can be made for both of those entry points, but the early 1990s offer another fascinating moment in this history. While this wasn’t the beginning of any grand conservative movement, the period is, in retrospect, a revealing flashpoint. And if you’re looking for a precursor to the weird, scrambled politics of the present, it’s an excellent candidate.
The “Land of the Free” Has Been the Enemy of Freedom Around the World | Truthout
Today, streets and lawns throughout the United States bristle with red, white and blue, and a settler colony built on genocide and slavery seeks to depict itself as a scrappy young underdog that overthrew the yokes of British tyranny. Yet for hundreds of millions around the world, the stars and stripes have been a symbol not of independence but of coercion, oppression and forced dependence.
From Latin America to Southeast Asia, and from the Middle East and North Africa to Eastern Europe to sub-Saharan Africa, the “land of the free” has often been an enemy of self-determination. No people — including this country’s native inhabitants — have been safe from the reach of U.S. empire, which insisted on making the world an ungated playground for its interests.
I am Palestinian. For 76 long years, the U.S. – the nation of my birth – has materially and militarily backed a state that displaced my grandparents from their home in 1948 and rendered them and their children stateless — a nation that has been cleansing my people from their land since its founding, and in its latest act of genocide, has cut short the lives of 37,953 Palestinians within the last nine months alone.
Freedom isn’t free • Missouri Independent
You can’t understand the scope of 122,000 names until you see them on a wall.
Stand at the foot of the National Monument to Freedom, recently dedicated by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, and you’ll see all of them, soaring three or four stories above your head.
Each name, taken from the 1870 census, belonged to a former enslaved person. These are surnames. Family names. Combined, they represent about 4 million people who emerged from bondage.
Each one stands for an American once treated as an animal.
“The developed countries, the major emitters, are not taking this matter seriously.”
As the earliest Category 5 storm ever observed in the Atlantic carves a path of destruction through the Caribbean, we get an update on damage from Hurricane Beryl from the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves. He describes the disaster scenes he witnessed and discusses the rising challenge of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis.
The Community Organizing Guide aims to empower people to become effective organizers in their communities.
Organizers bring people together and make it easier for people to take action and succeed. Organizers help people see how they can work together and make an impact. This happens at a group level (convening, facilitating, etc) and by supporting individuals to take on responsibilities and be more comfortable taking action for what they believe in. This guide provides information about some of the basics of organizing: the fundamental principles and the specifics of the most common skills.
Tragic. The devastation is hard to comprehend. This is the long emergency.
Hurricane Beryl's Aftermath: Carriacou Residents' Survival Stories - YouTube
We survived Hurricane Beryl. Now what? It's heart wrenching and inspiring to hear from residents in Carriacou who have lost everything in this powerful hurricane. As the only journalists on the island, I need your help. This is a very raw video, I walk around and talk to the people so you can hear directly from them about this Hurricane, it's impacts and how they can still smile in the face of having no hope but to wait for help to arrive.
Mother Jones was 83 years old when she confronted a militia alone in the coal fields of Ludlow Colorado. Theodore Roosevelt called her the most dangerous woman in America.
83 years old.
What are you willing to do for freedom? Democracy?
This seems like a problem the Republican Governor of Florida should be dealing with.
Miami Is Entering a State of Unreality - The Atlantic
“Rain bombs” such as Invest 90L are products of our hotter world; warmer air has more room between its molecules for moisture. That water is coming for greater Miami and the 6 million people who live here. This glittering city was built on a drained swamp and sits atop porous limestone; as the sea keeps rising, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that South Florida could see almost 11 extra inches of ocean by 2040.
Oh, well, if Biden's family thinks he's the best candidate, it makes perfect sense that they make that decision for the party and the country.
While his family was reportedly aware of how poorly he performed, they also continue to think he’s the best person to beat Donald Trump.
At least 427 people have died over four days in just one city in Pakistan due to the lethal heatwaves scorching south Asia this summer.
The non-profit Edhi Foundation said it received 427 bodies in four days until Tuesday in Karachi, the country’s biggest city and financial centre.
The Government Broke Its Promise to Freed People. There’s a Price to Pay. – Mother Jones
Fourteen trillion dollars.
That’s the total amount of money that the federal government owes to Black people in America for the legacy of slavery, according to economist William Darity and his colleagues.
It’s not an abstract figure. As Darity explains in the final episode of our “40 Acres and a Lie” series.
A rare, non-dramatic, measured take on the iPad.
A Serious Talk about iPads. - YouTube
Let's talk about the M4 iPad Pro, iPadOS, WWDC, who the iPad is for, and what it's even good at!
A year ago Jeremy described our current crisis very well:
In 2024, we face the likely prospect of two old men representing two dying ideologies competing for the presidency of the United States...
The only thing that unites these two groups is their absolute devotion to the capitalist imperative of continual economic growth.
Both of these ideologies are dying. They are dying because neither of them can or will face the actual future.
We're not even trying to slow down. We're accelerating to our doom.
U.S. Oil And Gas Production Are Ahead Of Last Year’s Record Pace
Last year marked a record for U.S. oil production with an average daily production of 12.93 million barrels per day (BPD). That record was 5% greater than the previous record of 12.31 million bpd set in 2019.
However, current data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that average daily production thus far in 2024 is 13.12 million bpd — 7.1% ahead of the production level of a year ago and 1.4% higher than last year’s record pace.
An excellent introduction to Noam Chomsky's work on mass media analysis.
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media | Documentary - YouTube
Funny, provocative and accessible, Manufacturing Consent explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist...
22-award-winning documentary highlights Chomsky's probing analysis of mass media and his critique of the forces at work behind the daily news. Viewers are encouraged to extricate themselves from the “web of deceit” by undertaking a course of “intellectual self-defence.”
So, to summarize, the State Department does not care and will not be bothered with our complicity in war crimes.
Got it.
U.S. State Department Pressed On Hind Rajab’s Killing For Four Months Straight - YouTube
For four months, Prem Thakker of The Intercept has pressed the U.S. on the killing of Hind Rajab, her family, and the paramedics sent to save her. Over and over, the U.S. has said it is waiting for Israel to investigate itself. Independent investigation from Forensic Architecture finds it “not plausible” that Israeli forces did not see who they shot 335 bullets at. Read the full story...
This is what happens when people are not paying attention to the details. This is the future of trying to feed billions of humans during a climate emergency.
How World Leaders are Scrambling to Secure Food in the Shadows | Amanpour and Company
In a world full of unrest, fears are mounting about access to our most vital resources — food and water. "The Grab" is a documentary that chronicles the way certain governments are attempting to control these global resources.
This tells you how broken we are. This is white supremacy normalized in the form of a liberal, a Democrat in 2024 America. If this isn’t white supremacy, what is it?
Mehdi asks Congressman Dean Phillips about the recent operation to free four Israelies when over 274 Palestinians were killed: Is it worth it? How many Palestinian lives are worth an Israelie life?
Phillips responded It’s an unacceptable price. But I think it’s a price that has to be paid.
“Why aren’t all lives equal?” Mehdi challenges and then flips the question to ask if, by that logic, would it be fair for Palestinians to kill hundreds of Israelies to rescue Palestinians being held and tortured by Israelies?
Phillips cannot answer the question.