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Corporate Media bash teachers unions for resisting school reopenings amid rising death toll
Rather than attack the government for its poor handling of the COVID crisis, corporate media have opted for a return to a favorite pastime of theirs: union bashing.
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Oligarchy in Russia–Alexei Navalny’s telling mistake
On the subject of oligarchy and the treasure storehouses which oligarchs build for themselves, Alexei Navalny reveals that he’s following a U.S. and NATO script: this takes no account of how President Vladimir Putin rules Russia, or the choice most Russians believe is the preferred alternative to Putin–that’s rule by a combination of officers and civilians acceptable to the military.
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‘We’re witnessing a fundamental political realignment’: Mike Davis on the crisis in the United States
In the wake of the deadly riot in Washington, DC, and with the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden just days away, Ben Hillier spoke to Mike Davis, author of Prisoners of the American Dream and Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory, about the crises and transformations of U.S. politics.
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Four crises, one crisis (or the health of the people)
While it is not clear how many people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the United States (is it under 400,000 still? Over 500,000 yet?), it is clearer than ever that we are experiencing a continent-wide public health catastrophe. Perhaps this is unsurprising.
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To the Inaugural Poet
This poem is a response to the Inaugural Poet’s address which featured near the end the line: “The new dawn blooms as we free it”.
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The “humanitarian” left still ignores the lessons of Iraq, Libya and Syria to cheer on more war
In fact, those weren’t really separate horror shows: they were instalments of one long horror show.
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Capitalism, romanticism, and nature
Robert Sayre and Michael Löwy’s Romantic Anti-capitalism and Nature is an extremely interesting book—enjoyable, informative, and intellectually stimulating.
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The next two years will be the Democratic Party at its most transparent
Joe Biden is now the president of the United States of America. His day one executive orders should have prioritized ending the single worst crisis in the world in Yemen, a war he campaigned on ending U.S. involvement in, but they did not.
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Biden’s ‘Secretary of State for regime change’ indicates no change in U.S. foreign policy
The new secretary of state served as a senior foreign policy official in the Obama administration–a period marked by increased global conflict and wars in the Middle East.
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Bidenfreude: COVID-19 in post-Trump U.S.
A jokester once characterized Yale University as a hedge fund with a campus attached to it. One might say something similar of the country in which Yale is based.
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Biden nominees call for tough stance on China during confirmation hearings
During Tuesday’s confirmation hearings before the Senate, nominees for positions in Joe Biden’s cabinet expressed their support for a tough stance on China.
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The class composition of the Capitol rioters (First Cut)
The extensive commentary I have read on the Capitol Seizure of January 6 has not, to my knowledge, focused on two aspects of the event: The first is the class composition of the rioters. The second is the actual cost of the event.
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U.S. makes aggressive opening move on Russian chessboard
A regime change project in Russia was launched on Sunday with the return of political activist Alexei Navalny to Moscow. It was a highly symbolic event—except that Navalny was traveling by an airplane from Germany and not in a sealed train.
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Max Blumenthal: Breach of Capitol security was like a military operation
The Grayzone founder notes that “such a disproportionate percentage” of the Capitol building attackers were former military, former law enforcement, or current law enforcement that began rappelling up the sides of the Capitol with ropes.”
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The Jewish supremacist state (A comment on B’Tselem’s ‘apartheid regime’ designation for Israel)
During the past two decades, many respected individuals and organizations designated the regime Israel has established in the occupied Palestinian territory—the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza—as a form of apartheid.
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Illicit Financial Flows: Africa is the world’s main creditor
Contrary to the dominant discourse, it is actually the case that the 54 African states finance developed countries and not the other way round.
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TNCs reviving TPP Frankenstein
The incoming Biden administration is under tremendous pressure to demonstrate better U.S. economic management. Trade negotiations normally take years to conclude, if at all. Unsurprisingly, lobbyists are already urging the next U.S. administration to quickly embrace and deliver a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
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Engels on the Peasant War in Germany
At a time when peasant masses in the country are engaged in a valiant struggle for the repeal of the Central government’s three infamous laws, and have laid peaceful siege to Delhi, braving rains and bitter cold, it is worth recalling Friedrich Engels’ study of the peasant war in Germany in 1525, that also celebrated its outstanding leader Thomas Muenzer. Such a recall becomes necessary for another reason.
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Prepare for a surge in Global inequality
The evidence clearly is that the Covid-crisis has upended the fiscal conservatism that has been the hallmark of the neoliberal era since the 1980s.
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The country where liberty is a statue
On 6 January, the world witnessed an interesting spectacle, an assortment of what appeared to be characters from fantasy television shows taking possession of the U.S. Capitol, where the legislature sits.