politics for the 99%

Published on War us a Crime.org, by David Swanson, Nov 1, 2013.

President Dwight Eisenhower is often admired for having avoided huge wars, having declared that every dollar wasted on militarism was food taken out of the mouths of children, and having warned — albeit on his way out the door — of the toxic influence of the military industrial complex (albeit in a speech of much more mixed messages than we tend to recall).

But when you oppose war, not because it murders, and not because it assaults the rights of the foreign places attacked, but because it costs too much in U.S. lives and dollars, then your steps tend in the direction of quick and easy warfare — usually deceptively cheap and easy warfare.  Continue Reading…

• Putting a face to domestic violence in Saudi Arabia, 34.17 min, uploaded by AlJazeera English / The Stream, May 6, 2013;
• Women’s rights in the Middle East, 43.24 min, uploaded by AlJazeera English / The Stream, May 2, 2012:
• UNICEF: Girls around the world talk about their lives and their rights, 3.15 min, uploaded by UNICEF,  March 4, 2010;
• Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel on Women’s Rights, Islam & Giving Back, 20.13 min, uploaded by WSJDigitalNetwork, Sept 26, 2012;
• Nairobi: The world’s worst punishment for rape? sign the petition on AVAAZ.org, October 31, 2013;
• Kuwaiti woman arrested in Saudi Arabia for driving sick father to hospital, on Russia Today RT, Nov 3, 2013;
• A discourse on brocialism, on New Statesman, by Laurie Penny, Nov 2, 2013;
• On Brand, iconoclasm, and a woman’s place in the revolution: a dialogue with Richard Seymour on the question of how to reconcile the fact that people need stirring up with the fact that the people doing the stirring so often fall down when it comes to treating women and girls like human beings …;
• Today’s young women live with constant surveillance, It has to stop, on New Statesman, by Laurie Penny, Oct 23, 2013:
• To be a white, middle-class male in this society is to live without a certain sort of scrutiny that people from other demographics grow up expecting. Meanwhile, intimate surveillance creeps into every aspect of young women’s lives …;
• Global Women’s Rights, 6.33 min, uploaded by Jeremiah Smith, Nov 29, 2010: Gender equality is a global issue.

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Martin Hesse, November 1, 2013 (Photo Gallery).

Singapore has become an increasingly popular haven for money laundering and tax evasion. But now it faces calls for reform and a difficult dilemma: Can it be both a home for fortune hunters and a bastion of integrity? … //

… Singapore’s Ambitious Plan: … //

… Sketchy Money:   Continue Reading…

Published on People’s World, by Mark Gruenberg, Nov 1, 2013.

WASHINGTON – Corporate interests, led by the American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC and including the National Association of Manufacturers, the (US) Chamber of Commerce and retailers‘ groups, have undertaken – and continue to undertake – a wide-ranging attack on workers, union and non-union, a new Economic Policy Institute EPI report and a panel discussing it says.   Continue Reading…

Interview published on Theory Talks, with Timothy Mitchell, Theory Talk no. 59, Oct 25, 2013.

The unrest in the Arab world put the region firmly in the spotlights of IR. Where many scholars focus on the conflicts in relation to democratization as a local or regional dynamic, political events there do not stand in isolation from broader international relations or other—for instance economic—concerns. Among the scholars who has insisted on such broader linkages and associations that co-constitute political dynamics in the region, Timothy Mitchell stands out. The work of Mitchell has largely focused on highly specific aspects of politics and development in Egypt and the broader Middle East, such as the relations between the building of the Aswan Dam and redistribution of expertise, and the way in which the differences between coal and oil condition democratic politics.   Continue Reading…

• Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report and Databook 2013, 64 pdf-pages, on Credit Suisse Bank, by leadership from Credit Suisse Research and the world’s foremost experts, October 2013;
  (see also: same report for 2010, 128 pdf-pages, on Credit Suisse Bank, by leadership from Credit Suisse Research and the world’s foremost experts, October 2010);
• Growing wealth disparities: Six businessmen own the equivalent of 4.3 per cent of Egypt’s total wealth, while 25 per cent of their countrymen are living below the poverty line,  on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Noha Moustafa, Oct 30, 2013;
• Remembering E.P. Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class at Fifty, on ZNet, by Cal Winslow, October 27, 2013;
• Global wealth inequality: top 1% own 41%; top 10% own 86%; bottom half own just 1%, on Michael Roberts Blog, by blog owner, October 10, 2013 … with 25 Responses;
• On Manichean Worldviews and Effecting Change, on naked capitalism, by blof owner, Sept 27, 2012;   Continue Reading…