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Inequality as Policy

Globalisation and technology are usually presented as natural and inevitable. In fact their course, insofar as they have led to greater inequality, this has been the result of conscious policy choices. It is much easier to have an economic system that produces more…

Without the power of kindness, our society will fall apart

When we are vulnerable and estranged from each other we can be easily manipulated by demagogues, as can be seen in the US and Europe. By George Monbiot for The Guardian If there is an irrepressible human trait it’s the…

Venezuela, the place where death is not a Halloween costume…

…but something that can be found everywhere – in an unnatural way – all year around. By Irene Halford In the usual narrative of a horror movie: you are not safe anywhere as sooner or later Death will find you,…

USA: What Are We to Think?

Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century A cascade of developments should make us afraid of what seems to be emerging politically in the United States at this time. Although politicians keep telling us how great we were…

Gorbachev Appeals for Sanity

John Scales Avery, Pugwash Nobel Peace Laureate President Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union and recipient of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, has appealed to world leaders to reduce the dangerous the tensions which today threaten to plunge…

Historic vote at the UN means nuclear weapons will be illegal in 2017

Last week something historic happened at the United Nations. Despite enormous pressure from the United States, 123 nations, all with equal standing at the UN General Assembly, voted to start a process in 2017 to negotiate a ban on nuclear…

Nobel committee losing patience with Bob Dylan. They should have read his lyrics more carefully

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and other explosives, so perhaps he felt responsible for their military use. But dynamite also opens roads through mountains and gave access to people who were not communicated. So he cannot really be blamed for inventing…

Snowden’s Lawyer Interviewed by Leo Laporte

Important interview given by Leo Laporte on his TWIT.tv network on the show Triangulation with Ben Wizner, Edward Snowden’s Lawyer and Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. It’s a very US oriented discussion but a serious and…

Rigged

By David Swanson The 2016 Republican presidential primary was rigged. It wasn’t rigged by the Republicans, the Democrats, Russians, space aliens, or voters. It was rigged by the owners of television networks who believed that giving one candidate far more…

The Universal Human Nation: Identifying the bad guys

In every conflict it’s always good to know who the bad guys are, who those people are who are exploiting, or abusing or being violent towards others. In Hollywood, it’s mostly easy.  The good guys have American accents, and the…

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