Tag: politics
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist And Chess Review 16
Ahmad Barqawi discusses American imperialism. William Sheppard discusses state violence and rape. Sheldon Richman discusses how Obama and Kerry are jeopardizing peace with Iran. Max Border discusses the rise of the new libertarians. Murray Dobbin discusses Stephen Harper’s loyalty to Israel. Michael Munger discusses what positive vision libertarians can offer. Laurence M. Vance discusses hard…
Virtual Cantons: A New Path to Freedom?
The Problem of Structure What would the constitution of a free nation look like? In trying to answer that question we immediately think in terms of a Bill of Rights, restrictions on governmental power, and so forth. And any constitution worth having would certainly include those things. But if a constitution is to be more…
Sobre o culto à autoridade
Na segunda, dia 13 de janeiro, dois policiais de Fullerton, na Califórnia, acusados do espancamento até a morte de Kelly Thomas foram inocentados e o promotor anunciou sua decisão de não processar um terceiro policial envolvido. As milhões de pessoas que acompanhavam o deenrolar dos fatos encararam o veredito com incredulidade: como alguém que tinha…
Depends On What “Corruption” Is
In an interview with Fox News curmudgeon Bill O’Reilly, US president Barack Obama insists that the Internal Revenue Service’s “flagging” and harassment of Tea Party and other dissident political groups was the result of “boneheaded decisions” but “not even a smidgen of corruption.” While the American political right is having a good guffaw about that,…
Anarchism and Capitalism: A Revisitation
Recently, a rebuttal of my previous article “Anarcho-Capitalism is Impossible” was brought to my attention. The author, Christopher Cantwell, made some points that are worth addressing and my own thoughts on the matter have shifted somewhat over time. Therefore, I think it would be worth revisiting the topic with fresh eyes. In his introductory paragraphs,…
Support C4SS with Barbara Sostaita & Judith Ayers’s “Liberty Beyond White Privilege”
C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Barbara Sostaita & Judith Ayers’s “Liberty Beyond White Privilege” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Barbara Sostaita & Judith Ayers’s “Liberty…
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist And Chess Review 15
Amanda Marcotte discusses the tribalism of the religious right. William Norman Grigg discusses police brutality. David R. Hoffman discusses the NSA and CIA as criminal enterprises. Arthur Silber discusses psychological manipulation and lying. Arthur Silber discusses atrocity in the context of war. Arthur Silber discusses neurosis and terror as national policy. Arthur Silber discusses a…
Missing The Point On Food Stamps
So Congress is set to pass another gargantuan ($100 billion per year) “farm bill.” And of course, the 500-pound gorilla is the “food stamp” portion of the bill, which is set to be cut by a whopping 1%, while the overall measure increases “farm bill” spending by 37% over that of its predecessor bill over…
State Rape And Infinitely Scalable Violence
When the basic premise of the drug war is that we do not own our own bodies, the recurring theme of police sexual assault in the media over the last several months seem less like freak occurrence and more like an expected, perhaps its inevitable outcome. Last year there was the police rape of a New Mexico…
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist and Chess Review 14
Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn discuss the terrorist character of the late Ariel Sharon. Binoy Kampmark discusses the march to war with Iran. Andrew Levine discusses what will happen for Obama upon the unraveling of Iraq. Alfred McCoy discusses the surveillance state. Kevin Carson discusses the worship of authority. Jose Martinez discusses Wal-Mart racism….
Warfare/Welfare/Corporate State: All Of A Piece
If I understand Princeton historian Sean Wilentz correctly, progressives ought not to be grateful to Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Glenn Greenwald for exposing government spying because they are not card-carrying progressives. (“Would You Feel Differently About Snowden, Greenwald, and Assange If You Knew What They Really Thought?”) Apparently they have either hung out with…
When Basic Services Are Guaranteed As A “Right”
Recently Ezra Klein pointed out (“What liberals get wrong about single payer,” Washington Post, January 13) that single-payer healthcare wouldn’t solve the problem of America having the most expensive healthcare system in the world. American health insurance premiums aren’t so high because of the overhead cost or profit of insurance companies, but because of the…
Ani DiFranco, la Schiavitù e il Sussidio della Storia
Qualche tempo fa la cantautrice Ani DiFranco ha dovuto cancellare il suo “Righteous Retreat in the Big Easy”, un ritrovo di autori di canzoni ospitato nella Nottoway Plantation and Resort, una ex piantagione di schiavi in Luisiana. La scelta del luogo aveva provocato un meritato scontento, costringendo la DiFranco alla ritirata. La cantante ha poi…
Good Piece In The Jacobin
The Jacobin recently published a good piece by Peter Frase titled “The Left and the State.” In it he discusses a recent attack on Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange. This attack was published in the well known liberal magazine, The New Republic. He makes use of another good piece by libertarian, Will Wilkinson….
Finding The Brake
In his 1815 Principles of Politics, French liberal author Benjamin Constant defended the monarch’s “right to dissolve representative assemblies.” Constant’s position might seem surprising. Wasn’t securing the independence of parliaments from the royal will one of liberalism’s hard-won victories? His reasoning ran as follows. The “tendency of assemblies to multiply indefinitely the number of laws” is the inevitable…
Libertarian Class Analysis
Say the words “class analysis” or “class conflict” and most people will think of Karl Marx. The idea that there are irreconcilable classes, their conflict inherent in the nature of things, is one of the signatures of Marxism. That being the case, people who want nothing to do with Marxism quite naturally want nothing to…
Self-Help Against The State
A war has been raging in Mexico for almost ten years now. The nexus of American drug laws and Americans’ drug use has spawned outlaw cartels who, like the Prohibition-era Mob, use violence to enforce their control of the drug trade. In 2006, the situation was exacerbated when the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched…
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist and Chess Review 13
Wendy McElroy reviews a historical work on the surveillance state. Jonathan Cook discusses the Israel-Palestine conflict. Sheldon Richman discusses how intellectual property creates corporate concentration. Jim Lobe discusses the fall of Fallujah. Stephen Kinzer discusses the potential detente with Iran. Thaddeus Russell discusses The Other America. Kevin Carson reviews AFFEERCE: A Business Plan to Save…
La Privatizzazione della Diplomazia, alla Maniera di Dennis Rodman
Il verdetto è stato emesso: Tutti i popoli civili devono odiare Dennis Rodman. Politici da John McCain a John Kerry e opinionisti da Bill O’Reilly a Chris Matthews sono offesi dal fatto che un americano visiti il terzo polo dell’Asse del Male. All’inizio di questa settimana Rodman, assieme a sei suoi ex compagni di gioco…
Privacy 2014: La Favola dell’Accaparratore
In questi ultimi anni gli accaparratori – persone che collezionano mucchi di oggetti fino ad esserne sopraffatti – sono diventati l’argomento forte dei notiziari e della “televisione della realtà”. Secondo un’opinione condivisa da molti gli accaparratori sono persone malate di mente, persone comunque socialmente deviate e bisognose di “aiuto”, o persone che devono essere fermate nella…
Anarchy and Democracy
Fighting Fascism
Markets Not Capitalism
The Anatomy of Escape
Organization Theory