Archives for يونيو 2020

American Exceptionalism Is on the Ropes and the End of the Petrodollar Is Nigh

From the border wall rhetoric to trade wars, Trump is effectively setting up the implosion of the dollar and couching it as pseudo nationalistic populism.

بواسطة Raul Diego
US dollar decline Feature photo

The pressure on the global economy imposed by the measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to erode whatever confidence the world still has in the U.S. dollar as a viable reserve currency. A shortfall in U.S. domestic savings, dropping to 1.4 percent of national income, brought on by the drawn-out shutdowns and structural changes to the

Trump Rips up Decades-Old WMD Treaty in Order to Sell Drones to Saudi Arabia

The Missile Technology Control Regime is the latest in a list of longstanding international agreements that the Trump administration has withdrawn from, often to the benefit of Saudi Arabia and US arms dealers.

بواسطة Alan Macleod
Trump Saudi Arabia Feature photo

The Trump administration has decided to break the 33-year-old Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) treaty in order to sell high-tech American drones to whomever it wants. First on that list, Reuters reports, are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Romania, with sales to begin almost immediately. The move will doubtless signal

Amid George Floyd Protests, Democrats Are Choosing a “Tough on Crime” Ticket

Despite national demands for sweeping police reform, Biden appears likely to choose Kamala Harris, famous for her conservative, “lock them up” stance on crime, as his running mate.

بواسطة Alan Macleod
Biden Harris Feature photo

Amid an anti-police movement that has swept the country, the Democratic Party is choosing to run on a “tough on crime” ticket for November. A new Reuters exclusive reports that California senator and former prosecutor Kamala Harris is the clear favorite for the job of vice-president in a Biden White House. Bookmakers agree, putting Harris’ chances

Project Venezuela: Right-Wing Activists Push Wikipedia to Blacklist MintPress, other Alternative Media

A group of right-wing Venezuelans has managed to ban the use of a range of alternative media outlets covering Venezuela, including MintPress News.

بواسطة Alan Macleod
Wikipedia Feature photo

Still unable to convince a sufficient number of their countryfolk to support them, the Venezuelan opposition has turned their efforts towards convincing an international audience – primarily Americans – to support their cause. Part of that is spending inordinate amounts of time online, arguing in English on social media, creating bot networks, and

Hawkish, Gov’t Funded Think Tank Behind Twitter Decision to Delete Thousands of Chinese Accounts

Twitter’s decision came after close collaboration with a deeply controversial U.S. and Australian government-funded think tank that has been denounced by Australia’s former ambassador in Beijing as “the architect of the China threat theory in Australia.”

بواسطة Alan Macleod
Jack Dorsey Feature Photo

Social media giant Twitter announced yesterday that it had shut down over 170,000 accounts favorable to the Chinese Communist Party, as well as more than 1,000 Russian and 7,340 Turkish accounts it claimed were parroting Putin and Erdogan propaganda. Is this evidence of massive Chinese infiltration and control over Western social media? Not

Glen Ford: Having Not Yet Won Any Real Power Over Police, This Is No Time for a Truce

The oligarchs that rule the country and control both of its corporate parties and all of its major media want the people to believe that politics is limited to the electoral process, and that street activism, labor militancy, and community organizing are outside the realm of “real” politics.  

بواسطة Glen Ford
Black Lives Matter Feature Photo

New York City (BAR) — The awesome power of massed, militant people in motion has been manifest since the Memorial Day murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Much of the world now knows Floyd’s name; majorities of Americans say they support  “Black Lives Matter”; New York City’s mayor pledged to slash his cops’ budget in deference to the Black Lives