Shifts in the financial center of gravity

US imperialistic power is overtly demonstrated by its massive military that can be used to easily overpower most nations, though we have seen that controlling the aftermath is much more problematic. But a major source of US power is exerted more covertly, by controlling the financial centers of the world. Note how it uses that power to annex the assets of countries it has conflicts with and prevents them from having access to international capital or denying them the lines of credit and insurance that are necessary for trade.
[Read more…]

What’s wrong with adopting the Scandinavian model?

When Bernie Sanders appeared on ABC News yesterday, it became clear that the interviewer wanted to goad him into attacking Hillary Clinton directly and then get her to respond in kind because that will enable them to create the kind of narrative they are most familiar with, that of a mud-slinging race and the effect of those attacks on poll numbers. But Sanders is smart enough not to fall for that. Instead, by focusing his attacks on the billionaire class that dominates US politics, Clinton is affected only to the extent that she is part of that class. It will be interesting to see how she reacts.
[Read more…]

The horror inflicted by the Israel army on Gazans

The Israeli group Breaking the Silence has released a new report of testimonies given by some Israeli soldiers that reveals the depth of the atrocities inflicted by the Israeli army on the people of Gaza during its assault last year. In that operation known as Protective Edge 1,462 civilians, among them 495 children and 253 women were killed. Some may recall the infamous video of four boys being massacred as they played on a beach.
[Read more…]

The Republican war on women continues

As was to be expected, the Hobby Lobby case was just the beginning. The infamous verdict by the US Supreme Court in that case that for-profit companies need not comply with the Obamacare provisions that their health insurance companies cover birth control if they have religious objections laid the groundwork for further conservative assaults on women’s health and reproductive rights.
[Read more…]

Obama’s double standard on drone killings

The recent killing by drones of two Americans held hostage has opened up the debate once again about this policy. President Obama has felt obliged to apologize for their deaths. Of course Americans have been killed by drones before and there have been many, many innocent civilians killed also but since they were Muslims, they did not count and president Obama, who seems to love the drone assassination program, never felt obliged to apologize for any of those many deaths except in an oblique way.
[Read more…]

The ACLU comes up with technology to meet the need

As bystanders increasingly start recording police interactions with the public using their ubiquitous smartphones, the police have responded by sometimes ordering them to stop (though courts have held that people have a right to record as long as they are not interfering with the police actions), confiscating the cameras and destroying the videos, or sometimes even destroying the cameras by smashing them on the ground.
[Read more…]