Geography Archives: United States

Early speculation on the motive behind Israel’s slaughter in Gaza that began on 27 December 2008 and continued till 18 January 2009 centered on the upcoming elections in Israel.  The jockeying for votes was no doubt a factor in this Sparta-like society consumed by “revenge and the thirst for blood,”1 where killing Arabs is a […]

New Orleans — Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic event that forced many people in New Orleans to start over.  Since then, several hurricanes, such as Ivan and Gustav, continued to damage some of the oldest and most significant historical sites in the United States.  One of the sites in jeopardy is the Wesley United Methodist […]

Liberals swooning over President Barack Obama’s recent speechmaking are also much impressed by his rhetorical overtures to Arabs and Muslims, first articulated during his inaugural address and reiterated on a major Arabic-language news channel. The sharp divergence in tone and tenor from Bush’s rhetoric is certainly welcome after eight years of hubris and arrogance. Quoting […]

On Tuesday, December 9, the anti-immigrant lobbyists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) held a press conference in downtown Washington, DC to promote their “Immigration Reform Agenda for the 111th Congress.” The press conference followed the new line that groups like FAIR have adopted since the financial crisis broke out last September.  Undocumented […]

I have a six-year-old son.  His name is Jin-Gyu.  He lives off me, yet he is quite capable of making a living.  I pay for his lodging, food, education, and health care.  But millions of children of his age already have jobs.  Daniel Defoe figured out in the 18th century that children are able to […]

“This is one local aspect* of a problem which is actually global.” — Dennis Brutus Farewell the Nightingales Walking the streets of the Shah’s Tehran I was conscious of lurking Savak — cries of tortured victims hung in the dusk even as I lingered over buttered long-grain rice in a dim bistro’s magic cave: That […]

Most mainstream accounts of the Palestinian Hamas organization present it as a bunch of rabid fanatics, bent on violence and motivated by an irrational hatred of Jews and the state of Israel.  This view is reflected both in the mainstream media and in many books published on the topic. When we separate propaganda from reality, […]

Around the world hundreds of millions of people witnessed the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States (US), or rather the coronation of the new “emperor.”  Even at the bottom tip of Africa, it was difficult to escape the scenes of imperial grandeur that beamed across television sets.  As was the case with […]

“After throwing a shoe at the US Consulate in Durban today to wish the Bush regime good riddance, I remind myself that this sentiment of disgust has occurred repeatedly.  In 1987, it was Reagan in the White House, tomorrow it will be Obama, but the problem is not the person, it is the system.” — […]

“Israel continues to show admirable restraint in dealing with her hostile neighbors, even in the face of increasing rocket attacks, kidnappings, and threats to her people. I support her actions in defense of her people, and I pray for a swift and just conclusion to the fighting.” — Jerrold “Progressive” Nadler, DEMOCRAT, July 13, 2006.

  WIN: According to a quotation by Jim Reid that you and Fred Magdoff included in your article entitled “Financial Implosion and Stagnation” (Monthly Review, December 2008), the U.S. financial sector has made around 1.2 Trillion ($1,200) of “excess” profits in the last decade relative to nominal GDP.  How has the structure of the capital […]

Introduction by Lincoln Shlensky Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, in an audio/video interview (also transcribed) with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, breaks down the responsibility for the current war in Gaza and clarifies the definition of “terror” as a term that should be applied both to Hamas and Israel.  Based on Israeli Ministry of Defense statistics […]

Thursday, January 15, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO — A group of nine activists — Palestinian, anti-Zionist Jewish, and immigrant rights activists — blocked the entrance of the Israeli Consulate beginning at 8:30am today, in nonviolent protest of Israeli apartheid and its current attacks on Gaza.  The activists chained themselves together using handcuffs and locks, locked the […]

“Egypt is playing a tawdry role in the current agony of the Palestinians; but it is not new, sadly.” — Dennis Brutus Remembering Egypt  Solitary I walked the sands beside the Pyramids hot soil beneath my feet: ageless the cloudless skies aeons above invisible stars: men laboured in dusty rags parched reeds wilted in shallows […]

Wednesday, January 14, 2009, Los Angeles Click to enlarge. Photos by Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times Early this morning, Jewish activists, in a historic first in Los Angeles, chained themselves to the entrance of the Israeli Consulate and blocked the driveway to the parking structure, blocking all traffic in and out of the building.  “We sent […]

With only a few days left until his inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama met with President Felipe Calderón in the second week of January, the first meeting with a foreign leader since his election last November, indicating the importance of the U.S. relationship with its southern neighbor.  Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN), Mexico’s most conservative major […]

The current crisis of the capitalist world is commonly explained as resulting from “a lack of government regulation of the financial sector”, “insufficient supervision allowing reckless lending by financial institutions”, “the unbridled greed of the financiers”, in short a series of mistakes and aberrations.  These have contributed to a “systems failure” in the words of […]

On January 10, 2009, thousands of people in the Bay Area protested the US-supported attack by Israel on the people of Gaza at a rally and march in San Francisco.  Trade unionists including leaders of the Oakland Education Association and ILWU Local 10 and a leader of the California Peace and Freedom party condemned the […]

Listening to the feelings expressed by Muslims around the world, one perceives an emotion of anger and revolt mixed with a deep sense of helplessness.  The current massacres are but a confirmation of the well known: the “international community” does not really care about the Palestinians, and it is as if the state of Israel, […]

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c Strip Maul Barack Obama InterviewJohn McCain Interview Sarah Palin VideoFunny Election Video Transcript of “Strip Maul,” The Daily Show, 5 January 2009 Jon: 2009, nothing but hope and change — we’re back, baby — let’s do this thing. Air Assault MSNBC.com: 2009 begins in […]