politics for the 99%

Radicalise, reform or fragment: these are the options facing the Muslim Brotherhood – on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Dina Ezzat, April 3, 2014.

Most people expect that on 5 June that Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi will be inaugurated as Egypt’s new president. The recently resigned military chief officially announced his candidacy against a backdrop that includes — according to local and international human rights organisations — the detention of more than 20,000 Muslim Brotherhood members who face a raft of charges. Triple that number are thought to be on the run, either in Egypt or abroad.   Continue Reading…

von Kleinkunstpreis 2014 alle im März 2014 auf YouTube hochgeladen:

• HG. Butzko: Die wirklich Mächtigen sind die Banken, 10.01 min;
• Oliver Welke: heute show vom 28.3.2014, 35.54 min;
• Volker Pispers: Demokratie in USA, Ägypten, Ukraine und Russland, 4.40 min,
• Christian Ehring: extra3 vom 26. März 2014, 29.23 min;
• Lars Reichow: Spätschicht, die SWR Comedy Bühne, 21. März 2014, 43.14 min.

Links:   Continue Reading…

Published on Pambazuka News, by Hamza Hamouchene, April 3, 2014.

In the run up to Algeria’s presidential elections on 17 April, a tragic comedy unfolds in which presidential candidates contest against a rigid regime with false stability. The outcome of the election is predetermined; and the people will lose, no matter which candidate wins.

Algeria’s next presidential elections will be held on 17 April 2014 and for the last few months; this important electoral rendezvous showed all the hallmarks of a masquerade, consistent with almost all the elections in the history of the Algerian state since independence in 1962.   Continue Reading…

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Peter Radford, April 2, 2014.

… If we are to set up an institute to support change, provoke discussion, and otherwise meddle about with the established way of thinking, and thus to earn the moniker of “newness”, we ought not to pack our agendas with a steady stream of establishment figures. That is not the way to revolution. It might, however, be the way to raise esteem and thus get the institution media attention.

Newness in economics is devilishly hard to locate. This is due, possibly, to the continued warring amongst longstanding points of view that have neither been reconciled nor defeated. Indeed, from my perspective, it is practically impossible to kill off an economic idea once it has attached itself to an ideological flag.    Continue Reading…

(two with english transcript … the rest in german):

uploaded on YouTube by ggwporg, March 2014:

• (written transcript in english and german): Leaked phonecall Timoshenko: “I’ll raise the whole world to reduce Russia”, 2.21 min,  am 24. März 2014 hochgeladen: „Ich wäre bereit diesem Mistkerl (Putin) mit einem Maschinengewehr in den Kopf zu schießen.” „Wir müssen Waffen nehmen und diesen „Scheiss-Kazapen” (Russen) abknallen.” „Ich würde den Weg finden wie ich diese Arschlöcher platt machen würde”. (sie meint Krim). „Ich werde all meine Verbindungen nutzen und die ganze Welt gegen Rußland anstifften so dass von diesem Land nicht mal ausgebranntes Feld bleibt”. Auf die Frage was man mit 8 Millionen Russen machen soll die in der Ukraine leben, antwortet Timoschenko: „Wir sollen sie mit Atomwaffen vernichten” – (deutsch + english = for english click on the Transcript Icon):    Continue Reading…

Published on Intrepid Report, by Paul Craig Roberts, April 1, 2014.

… In the Genesis of the World War, Harry Elmer Barnes shows that World War 1 was the product of 4 or 5 people. Three stand out: Raymond Poincaré, president of France; Sergei Sazonov, Russian foreign minister; and Alexander Izvolski, Russian ambassador to France. Poincaré wanted Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, and the Russians wanted Istanbul and the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. They realized that their ambitions required a general European war and worked to produce the desired war.   Continue Reading…

Published on Corriere della sera english, by Enrico Marro, Marzo 25, 2014 (English translation by Giles Watson).

Impeccably efficient and well worth a full bonus. Despite the best efforts of the then civil service minister Renato Brunetta, almost all public-sector managers in the top two pay bands managed to obtain assessments of more than 90% and pocket a full bonus. The Renzi government will now have to find a way to link earnings to results in its reform of public administration. But it will have to do more than that.   Continue Reading…