King John of England, who 800 years ago this week was forced at Runnymede to affix his Great Seal to Magna Carta — which at least in theory subordinated his power to law — might have envied President Obama. Sure, Obama also pays lip service to idea that the executive is subject to law. But…

A recurring feature of the business cycle is that in deep recession years governments run huge annual deficits as a result of declining tax revenue, increased spending on unemployment and poverty relief and assorted stimulus. This causes government debt levels to skyrocket. In the case of the American “Great Recession,” this manifested itself as a…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Roderick Long‘s “Secret Service Incident Highlights Double Standard” read by Christopher King and edited by Nick Ford. “Implicit in the idea of a governmental police force, from the Secret Service down to your local beat cop, is inequality of rights. Police by definition are supposed to have rights that other people don’t have:…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Kevin Carson‘s “Obama: The Bosses’ Friend” read by Mike Godzina and edited by Nick Ford. “Meanwhile, the dispute drags on because management is simply unwilling to meet workers’ demands: Higher pay for weekend work. To resolve the impasse, one side or the other will have to do something it not only currently finds…

For as much as empire persists, it goes rather unmentioned by virtually anyone outside of Left opposition to it, which has (unfortunately) little weight in the US at all. Those who support US hegemony & keep it going have learned over time to use code words & feelgood lies to avoid having to actually discuss…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Will Moyer‘s “Genuine Ideology” read by Tony Dreher and edited by Nick Ford. “Genuine ideology is a fringe phenomenon. Genuine ideology exists, but is primarily found at the margins of mainstream discourse and political power. Put another way, the farther you move away from the mainstream, the more likely you are to find…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Chad Nelson‘s “Selective Hearing in the War on Terror” read by Joey Clark and edited by Nick Ford. “Michael Scheuer, Former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden Unit, said about bin Laden: “[he] is remarkably eager for Americans to know why he doesn’t like us, what he intends to do about it and then…

Just when I’d managed to get control of my laughter over the “Obama is a Marxist” trope —  he held Red Study Circles where he read Quotations From Chairman Mao with Geithner, Rubin and Summers, presumably — David Harsanyi accuses Hillary Clinton of “class warfare” (“For Hillary Clinton, No War But the Class War,” Reason,…

“The U.S. Navy … has dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt toward the waters off Yemen to join other American ships prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the rebels, U.S. officials said,” the Chicago Tribune reported on Monday. Thus does the Obama administration risk war with Iran while embracing the mischievous…

Right now the usual suspects are united in joy by Hillary Clinton’s official announcement of her candidacy for president (although anyone who seriously believed she was previously undecided on the issue probably also still believes in Santa Claus). By “usual suspects,” I mean self-styled “progressives” who think the Red/Blue divide reflects a serious disagreement in…

Un titolo recente su The Week diceva: “NSA: Stavamo per smettere di spiare tutti poco prima che parlasse Snowden” (30 marzo 2015). A prima vista si direbbe una buona imitazione di un titolo satirico di The Onion, se non fosse che la realtà è più strana della finzione. La Associated Press dice: “A sentire alcuni…

A recent headline from The Week says “NSA: We were just about to stop spying on everyone before Snowden spoke out” (March 30, 2015). At first glance this may seem like a good imitation of an Onion headline but truth is stranger than fiction. The Associated Press tells us, “The proposal to kill the program…

President Obama thinks that forcing us to vote might be a good idea. That he could favor punishing people for not voting — which means taking their money by force and imprisoning or even shooting them if they resist — is unsurprising. The essence of government is violence — aggressive, not defensive, force. Government is…

This election cycle’s crop of uninspiring presidential hopefuls, now including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, must be a relief to those favoring mass disillusionment with electoral politics. No candidate, Rand Paul included, represents a convincing alternative to the status quo. Contrast this with the current president, whose appeals to “hope” and “change” convinced many Americans of…

El sitio web Antiwar.com (cuyo nombre es autoexplicativo) anunció el 18 de marzo que Google Adsense había suspendido su cuenta – una fuente importante de los ingresos que necesita para mantenerse en línea – por publicar nuevas fotos de la tortura y el abuso cometidos en la prisión militar de Abu Ghraib en Irak (Eric…

Il sito Antiwar.com (un nome che dice tutto) il diciotto marzo ha annunciato la decisione di Google Adsense di sospendere il suo conto, risorsa fondamentale per stare online, per aver pubblicato foto di torture e abusi scattate nella prigione militare di Abu Ghraib in Iraq (Eric Garris, “Google Disables All Ads on Antiwar.com,” 18 marzo)….

The website Antiwar.com (whose name is self-explanatory) announced March 18 that Google Adsense had suspended its account — a major source of the revenue it needs to stay online — for publishing new photos of torture and abuse from the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq (Eric Garris, “Google Disables All Ads on Antiwar.com,” March…

Immaginate questa scena: Una bella sera, perfettamente ubriaco, sfondate un’area recintata dalla polizia con la vostra auto. Immaginate che l’area sia davanti alla Casa Bianca. E che sia stata recintata perché si sospetta che sia la scena di un crimine, una possibile bomba, e voi avete mandato tutto all’aria. Gli agenti corrono subito verso la…

Imagine the following scenario: You’re driving along one fine evening, pretty thoroughly drunk, and ram your car through police tape and into a barricade.  Suppose further that the barricade you’ve smashed into is in front of the White House. For good measure, let’s add that the police tape you broke was marking off an active crime scene…

Solitamente associo termini come “tradimento” e “sedizione” ad ignoranti di destra come l’associazione degli ex combattenti americani. Per questo mi viene la pelle d’oca quando sento sedicenti progressisti che si appropriano di quei termini a proposito della lettera che Tom Cotton e altri 47 senatori repubblicani hanno spedito all’Iran. In breve, il gruppo repubblicano in…