Tag: infrastructure
Straining at Trains and Swallowing Highways
According to Matthew’s gospel, Jesus used a colorful metaphor to condemn the scribes and Pharisees for scrupulously obsessing over minor points of the law like tithing their herbs, while ignoring weightier matters: “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” The same metaphor could describe right-libertarians’ approach to transportation policy. A…
La Lotta si fa Dura
Di Kevin Carson. Originale: Time to Fight Dirty, del 13 aprile 2023. Traduzione italiana di Enrico Sanna. Il parlamento dello Utah ha approvato una legge che punisce, con cinque anni di carcere, “chiunque faccia ostruzione o blocchi un’attività infrastrutturale critica” (categoria che comprende impianti petroliferi e gasieri, centrali e ferrovie). Assieme a questa legge, ne…
Pis Dövüşme Vakti
Yazar: Kevin Carsoni. Orijinal makale: Time to Fight Dirty, yayınlanma tarihi: 13 Nisan 2023. Zagreides tarafından tercüme edilmiştir. Utah yasama meclisi yakın zamanda “kritik bir altyapı tesisinin işleyişini engelleme veya kesintiye uğratmayı” beş seneye kadar hapisle yargılanabilecek bir cürüm haline getiren bir yasa çıkardı. Bu kritik altyapı tesisleri arasında petrol ve doğalgaz tesisleri, elektrik santralleri…
Time to Fight Dirty
The Utah legislature just passed a law that makes “inhibiting or impeding the operation of a critical infrastructure facility” — a category that includes oil and gas facilities, power plants, and railroads — a felony punishable by five years to life in prison. Another law passed along with it makes a person who “interferes with…
Reconstruirnos a nosotros mismos
De Jordan Jardine. Original: Build Back Ourselves, del 24 de enero del 2022. Traducido al español por Kesabel Babe. Durante las últimas semanas, ha sido difícil ignorar el lloriqueo que ha estado ocurriendo a lo largo de la gran llamada “izquierda en línea” — e incluso en la prensa convencional — sobre el colapso total…
Build Back Ourselves
Over the last several weeks, it has been difficult to ignore the whining that has been going on throughout much of the so-called “online left” — and even some in the mainstream press — over the utter collapse of the Build Back Better bill, mostly due to opposition to said bill by extremely conservative Democrats…
Forza (più o meno) New Deal Verde!
Di Kevin Carson. Originale pubblicato il 21 febbraio 2019 con il titolo One Cheer – More or Less – For the Green New Deal. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Prima di fare un’analisi critica da un’angolatura anarchica di una proposta politica come il New Deal Verde, è bene che spieghi quali sono i miei assunti di base….
One Cheer — More or Less — For the Green New Deal
In critiquing and analyzing a state policy proposal like the Green New Deal from an anarchist perspective, I should throw in the usual disclaimers about my working assumptions. I’m not an insurrectionist and I don’t believe the post-capitalist/post-state transition will be primarily what Erik Olin Wright called a “ruptural” process. Although the final transition may…
Licensed Larceny
Nicholas Hildyard. Licensed Larceny: Infrastructure, financial extraction and the Global South (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016). I discovered Nicholas Hildyard’s work at Corner House in 2005, and was heavily influenced by it. thecornerhouse.org.uk He’s one of the best writers around on the false pretensions of so-called “free market” policies like privatization and deregulation in the…
One Cheer For SpaceX
At a time when government space programs like NASA’s seem to be in permanent retrenchment — shifting to a strategy focused on uncrewed probes, fighting to maintain an “International Space Station” that looks like a joke compared to Golden Age science fiction visions of giant cartwheel stations in orbit — a lot of people see…
Clinton, the Latest Liberal Infrastructure Shill
Throughout American history centralized, federally subsidized infrastructure projects have been a recurring theme for plutocratic interests. Under the Whigs (“internal improvements”) and the Gilded Age GOP (railroad land grants) it was promoted by parties that unabashedly identified themselves as advocates for national commercial interests. But with the rise of the Progressive movement at the turn…
An Unholy Trinity of Corporatism
It’s hardly news that Charles and David Koch are longtime supporters of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). For example, Institute for Humane Studies “Koch fellows” are heavily represented in staff jobs at ALEC, and frequently go on to head the task forces that draft model legislation. The Kochs stated some time ago their preference…
Reports of Peak Oil’s Death Are Somewhat Premature
Peak Oil analysis site The Oil Drum recently announced it’s shutting down operations. Due to a dearth of new content, the management decided to stop publishing new material after July 31, leaving the existing content as a permanent archive. Naturally this evoked chortles of mirth from the Wall Street Journal. Those dumb old gloom-n-doomers at…
Sleep in Friday, Attend Small Business Saturday
If you support free markets, orient yourself more locally starting this week by avoiding Black Friday and supporting Small Business Saturday. Distant producers are majorly disadvantaged by unprivileged markets!
The Trouble with Those “Shovel-Ready” Projects
The conventional wisdom, among the punditocracy, is that a major part of any Obama stimulus package will be large-scale funding of “infrastructure.” To maximize the bang for the buck, to have a rapid effect on unemployment numbers, and to get the money into people’s hands quickly, it’s anticipated that such spending will likely go to…
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