The US government has been increasing aggressive actions against the Chavez administration in an attempt to isolate the major petroleum-producing nation and aid in ousting the Venezuelan President. During a hearing last Friday, June 24, in the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives regarding “Sanctionable Activities in Venezuela,” Democrats and Republicans requested the […]
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News updates or analysis.
Tweets from Syrian Opposition Conference Held at Semiramis Hotel in Damascus
27 June 2011 Luay Hussein: This is the first time we meet in front of our people so we have huge responsibilities. Luay Hussein: Those meeting here are not advocates of violence. Fadi Salem: Media was allowed in the first session and Syrian local Radio Cham is broadcasting live. Munther Khaddam: Who would have […]
Brazil: Key Economic Trends during and since the Recession
Brazil’s first quarter GDP shows continued expansion, driven by manufacturing and private consumption. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 5.4 percent in the first quarter, and over the last four quarters it has grown 4.2 percent. The two sectors that have had the strongest recovery since the recession, minerals extraction and finance, both […]
Prisoners in Pelican Bay SHU to Go on Indefinite Hunger Strike July 1st!
Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California) are going on an indefinite hunger strike as of July 1, 2011 to protest the cruel, inhumane, and torturous conditions of their imprisonment. The hunger strike has been organized by prisoners in an inspiring show of unity across racial and geographic […]
Syria: Semiramis Opposition Conference
I was rather skeptical, if not outright opposed, about the Syrian opposition conference in Semiramis Hotel in Damascus. I thought that the event would be used by the regime to attain legitimacy and that the very convening of the conference would be exploited to prove the democratic impulse of the lousy regime. But I must […]
Owners’ Equity as Percentage of Household Real Estate, 1980-2011
Many analysts seem to have missed the fact that the plunge in house prices has sharply reduced homeowners’ equity. According to data from the Federal Reserve Board, the ratio of homeowners’ equity to value at the end of the first quarter was just 38.0 percent at the end of the first quarter, the lowest on […]
Greece: Organize, Counterattack!
“The Peoples Have the Power and Never Surrender. Organize, Counterattack!” was the slogan written in Greek and in English on the banner that the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) hung from the Acropolis on 27 June, on the eve of the 48-hour strike against the barbaric anti-people measures of the social-democratic government, the EU, and […]
No to Military Trials in Egypt
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. Mohannad Sabry, “New Egypt? 7,000 Civilians Jailed since Mubarak Fell” (McClatchy Newspapers, 13 June 2011); “In the first three weeks of June, at least 22 workers and farmers have been interrogated by the military prosecutor and/or referred to military courts, according to the Awlad el-Ard NGO. . . […]
Libya: NATO’s Democracy
NATO — Burying the Libyan People in a Coffin Labeled “Democracy” Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay. This cartoon was published on his blog on 16 June 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). Cf. Peter Hart, “Libya’s Lousy PR” […]
Severe Accident Management Guidelines for Nuclear Reactors
The disaster at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in Japan prompted some people to contend that since U.S. reactors have Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMGs) they are less susceptible to disaster. A recent NRC audit of SAMGs at the nation’s nuclear power plants, however, suggests otherwise. One of the lessons from the 1979 Three Mile […]
Work Till You Drop: Who Benefits from the End of Retirement?
During the last century, the establishment of Social Security and the tax-favored employer pension plans that followed transformed and improved the lives of American workers. Combined with economic growth, these institutions meant that both the rich and the poor lived longer and every worker became entitled to pensions at the end of their working lives. […]
A Resurgence of Nuclear Power Poses Significant Challenges
Advocates of nuclear power are promoting a “nuclear renaissance” based on claims that a new generation of reactors will produce relatively cheap electricity while solving the threat posed by global climate change. U.S. power producers have proposed building more than 30 new nuclear reactors — and some proponents have called for building as many as […]
The NRC in Action at Fort Calhoun
The Union of Concerned Scientists often complains about Nuclear Regulatory Commission inaction — the agency’s failure to enforce its regulations prohibiting unmonitored and uncontrolled releases of radioactively contaminated water, the agency’s tolerance of four dozen reactors operating in violation of fire protection regulations, and so on. Today, we commend the NRC in action. Flood waters […]
What the Hell Do They Want?
Old slogan of the Venezuelan opposition: “Chávez, go back to Cuba!” New slogan of the Venezuelan opposition: “Chávez, come back from Cuba!” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). Cf. Judith León, “La oposición enloquece: […]
The Greek Crisis: Uttering the Other “D Word”
Default is not the dirty word that nobody wants to say. Almost everybody now accepts that Greece will default. Several people will prefer to use the euphemism of “re-profiling debts,” but we all know what it means. The interesting thing is that at least some authors, like Martin Wolf in a recent Financial Times […]
Revisiting Alleged 30 Million Famine Deaths during China’s Great Leap
Thirty years ago, a highly successful vilification campaign was launched against Mao Zedong, saying that a massive famine in which 27 to 30 million people died in China took place during the Great Leap period, 1958 to 1961, which marked the formation of the people’s communes under his leadership. The main basis of this assertion […]
The Road to Syrian Democracy: A New Political Party Law to End One-Party Rule
A new political party law has been drafted in Syria and is now posted online for public debate. It is due for ratification by parliament next August. If it passes, the law would effectively end one-party rule in Syria, which started when the Baathists came to power, through military coup, back in March 1963. In […]
Is the U.S. Government Prepared for a Greek Debt Default?
The European authorities are playing a dangerous game of “chicken” with Greece right now. It is overdue for U.S. members of Congress to exercise some oversight as to what our government’s role is in this process, and how we might be preparing for a Greek debt default. Depending on how it happens, this default could […]
US and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
I can report to you that the US government has been in contact with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. In a recent conference held in London, US and British official representatives met with the former (and still actual) leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, ‘Ali Al-Bayanuni. As’ad AbuKhalil is a professor of political science at […]
Stop Digging: The Case against Jobs
Much of the left has, mostly without debating it, coalesced around “jobs” as a unifying political demand. The motivation for this is clear: one of the biggest problems the country faces is that there are 20 million people who are unsuccessfully seeking full time employment. But while it may seem obvious that the solution […]
