Category Archives: Social values

Tom Engelhardt: Where Did the Antiwar Movement Go? War, Vietnam and Today

How shocking images of the Vietnam war helped stoke the antiwar movement of the 1960s, and how we’ve since become inured to them and the horrors of war generally.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Guest Post, Media watch, Politics, Social policy, Social values on August 12, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Days of Revolt: The Black Prophetic Tradition

Cornel West: “How do you straighten your back up? How do you tell the truth? How do you bear witness? How do you organize? How do you mobilize? How do you generate forms of resistance and resiliency in the face of some very, very ugly forms of terror and trauma and stigma?”

This entry was posted in Income disparity, Legal, Politics, Social policy, Social values on August 6, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Don Quijones: Businesses Flee Catalonia, Foreign Investment Plunges, as Confrontation with Spain Comes to a Boil

The issue of Catalan independence is no longer one based on pragmatic realities; as tensions have festered, it has become an almost purely emotionally driven issue, not just in Catalonia but throughout Spain.

This entry was posted in Economic fundamentals, Europe, Guest Post, Politics, Social values on August 5, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Dealing With Mass Killings in America: Funding Our Children, Not Our Wars

As mass killings become more common in the US, law enforcement agents fixate on and unduly publicize cases with jihadist links. As this post describes, that serves as an excuse for even more intensive surveillance.

Yet as Mark Ames described in one of the first works on these rampages, in his book “Going Postal,” there were no obvious similarities among the perps. They weren’t all, or even often, isolated losers. They did not typically come from broken homes. They were generally of above average intelligence. Aside from being disproportionately male, the other common thread was that they had been bullied.

If Ames’ observations still hold true, the lack of distinctive demographic or behavioral predictors of those who go on rampages means that heightened surveillance is at best another form of security theater, and at worst an excuse for Stasi-like dossier-gethering.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Dubious statistics, Guest Post, Legal, Social policy, Social values, Surveillance state on August 3, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Gaius Publius: The Rorschach Candidacy of Hillary Clinton

What you can learn from applying the Hillary Clinton Rorschach test to friends and family!

How Big Corporations Are Starving Public Schools of Billions of Dollars

How big corporate tax avoidance hurts local schools.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values, Taxes, The destruction of the middle class on July 29, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Sharp Pencils vs. Sharp Politics: The 2015 Social Security Trustees Report

Social Security does face long term demographics issues….as will any approach to making sure retirees have income.

This entry was posted in Dubious statistics, Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values on July 25, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Michael Hoexter: Climate Defeatism is as Much a Threat to Human Survival as Climate Denial – Part 1

Human beings face the choice whether to preserve parts of our present civilization or create elements of a new one or alternatively, head towards self-extinction.

This entry was posted in Energy markets, Environment, Global warming, Guest Post, Politics, Social values on July 18, 2015 by Yves Smith.

The Augean Stables – How Corruption Has Amended the Constitution

The institutionalized elements of corruption in America are so powerful that they’ve been able to gut the Constitution.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values on July 16, 2015 by Yves Smith.

John Helmer: What is the Price of Suppressing the Truth in the Info War Against Russia?

Most people don’t think too hard about the fact that there is a price for secrecy, and when the truth is dangerous, the price is high.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Guest Post, Media watch, Politics, Russia, Social policy, Social values on July 16, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Gaius Publius: The Clinton Campaign Notices the Sanders Campaign, or How to Read the Media

Unexpectedly strong poll momentum and event turnout for Bernie Sanders has the Clinton campaign starting to get concerned.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Media watch, Politics, Social values on July 10, 2015 by Yves Smith.

GREECE’D: We Voted ‘No’ to Slavery, but ‘Yes’ to Our Chains

Greek journalist Michael Nevradakis and US investigative journalist Greg Palast have a different take on the Greek ‘No’ vote against Europe’s cruel austerity demands.

De-Industrialisation, ‘New Speenhamland’ and Neo-Liberalism: Government Subsidies to Low Wage Employers

Efforts to reform social welfare programs in England operated on the assumption that lack of consistent work (as in periods of unemployment) and overly large families were the big drivers of poverty. But the majority of poor now are working poor, and as in the Speenhamland days, social welfare programs are helping to subsidize below-living-wage pay levels.Similar factors are in play for US employers like Wal-Mart and McDonalds.

This entry was posted in Free markets and their discontents, Guest Post, Income disparity, Social policy, Social values on July 6, 2015 by Yves Smith.