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Collapse of Industrial Civilization

~ Finding the Truth behind the American Hologram

Collapse of Industrial Civilization

Tag Archives: Rentier Class

Legion

14 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by darbikrash in Capitalism, Consumerism, Corporate State

≈ 122 Comments

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Calvinism, Capitalism, Chris Hedges, Conservatism, Consumerism, Evangelical Christianity, Evangelical Right, Evengelii Gaudium, Free Market Ideologues, Globalization, Gross Inequality, Idolatry of Money, Just Price, Karl Marx, New Testament, Newcomb’s Paradox, Political Corruption, Pope Francis, Predestination, Protestant and Calvinistic theology, Puritan Ethics, Rentier Class, Roman Catholic Pope, Rush Limbaugh, Strip Mall Religiosity, Tea Party, The Enlightenment, Thomas Aquinas, Usury

American Horror Story

You almost have to feel sorry for the conservatives, tea partiers, and the whole menagerie of free market evangelists these days. Even a casual perusal of AM talk radio, along with the buffoonery and gas baggery of the hard right news shows, one can see evidence of collapsing narratives at every turn.

Our disintegrating social conditions demand a plausible explanation from the right, and any such explanation, ideologically, must be sure to exonerate capitalism and the free market system.

This is becoming increasingly hard to do, as the shrill and contradictory defenses put forth become less satisfying every time the story is told. The story evolves, the audience reactions carefully polled, and the messaging refined to try and adapt to a low information audience growing more skeptical by the minute. There are many versions of the same story, depending on who tells it and more importantly who is paying for it, but for this discussion we are interested in the narrative brought forth by the evangelical right, and their socially conservative stable mates, or in general, the fire and brimstone crowd accounting for something near half of the American population.

The operating theory of this cohort centers for the most part on morality, or lack thereof, as principal cause for our society’s collapse.

Rush Limbaugh provides a pathetic but typical example of this type of addled logic:

The reason all of these stats on income inequality don’t work anymore is because the baseline for the statistical start is the fifties.  Now, what was happening in the fifties?  Well, in the fifties we had this thing called a nuclear family.  There was a mother, a woman.  There was a father, a man.  They had babies by engaging in coitus.  Leave It To Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet — hell, even the Beach Boys, for crying out loud!  They were seemingly clean and pure as the wind driven snow.

Anyway, then after the coitus in the bedroom, then little Beaver was born and then Wally, and there were 2.8 of the kids and little picket fence and (if the dad got a vice presidency), there were two cars in the garage, and mom — the female. I’ve gotta make that distinction. The mother was a woman, the wife of a man. She stays home, raises the kid, fixes breakfast, sends ’em off to school, talks to the PTA. There was all that.  There was one breadwinner, and there was an economic boom going on at the same time, following World War II.

Incomes in America rose dramatically.  Then something happened.  The left didn’t like that arrangement.  That was just bad. They didn’t fit in.  They didn’t like the idea of coitus in the bedroom.  They didn’t like coitus with someone the opposite sex, necessarily.  They didn’t even like coitus as a means of producing a kid.  In fact, most times they didn’t even like the kid. They wanted to have the abortion.  So what happened was that the nuclear family became under assault by “progressive” forces of modernization.

So today, you can’t compare family income today to what it was in the fifties when the boom time ’cause the family’s not the same.  You’ve got single women, single-parent families, fewer nuclear families.  Incomes have been divided.  It doesn’t work.

Who knew?

The root of American ethics and morality stems in part from its heavily Protestant and Calvinistic theological underpinnings, which we might well reduce to the “Puritan” ethic. There are several key components of this behavior, tracing back to the late 17th century:

1. Personal sacrifice fulfilled by austere living conditions.

2. Self-sufficiency and disdain of charity for one’s self.

3. Obsessive work ethic fueled by the notion that idleness is evil.

Of course there are others, but we can use these generalizations to continue. In addition we should mention that Calvinism utilizes the principle of predestination, or predetermination, a fundamental departure from modern evangelical Christianity.

The rollup of these centuries old dogmatic beliefs is a programing bias towards moral explanations for when things go wrong, and strong lifestyle choices that dictate high moral standards when times are normal, in order to stave off any potential (future) fall from grace. The modern evangelical right has conflated this DNA to represent a distorted view of Christianity leaning heavily on Capitalism-which has fascist underpinnings in its ultimate embodiment.

In the Flat Fields

A gut pull drag on me
Into the chasm gaping we
Mirrors multy reflecting this
Between spunk stained sheet
And odorous whim
Calmer eye- flick- shudder- within
Assist me to walk away in sin
Where is the string that Theseus laid
Find me out this labyrinth place

I do get bored, I get bored
In the flat field
I get bored, I do get bored
In the flat field

What is often lost in our current infatuation with Enlightenment thinking is the degree to which the Pre-Enlightenment Church managed commerce, financing, and general market forces. In fact, the Church maintained an iron hand on issues such as usury, which was condemned and not distinguished from the “normal” practice of charging interest until the late 19th century.

In the age of Church hegemony, which lasted for centuries, it was considered immoral, and grossly so, to profit in any way through trade, charging interest, or commerce which resulted in a profit without actually performing any work. specifically, any rent seeking activity was forbidden.

Things that are considered commonplace today, such as raising prices for items needed in a disaster, (supply and demand) were thoroughly rejected by the Church and considered inconceivable during that time. Thomas Aquinas brought forth these concepts in the theory of Just Price in his Summa Theologica circa 1274 AD. Although this was clearly a Pre-Capitalist economy, much learning was put towards strict management of commerce dating back to the money changers being expelled from the temple in Biblical times- a theme oft repeated through the Dark Ages and well beyond.

For centuries, civilizations knew full well the dangers of markets and unconstrained commerce, and there is more than a passing connection between this realization and theology, present in virtually all religions throughout time.

This reality has been brought to the fore with the recent, and controversial, exhortation Evengelii Gaudium from the Roman Catholic Pope. Pundits have been zeroing in on the more provocative aspects after his release of the document last month. I’ve read all 244 pages of it and I’m here to tell you that he has pretty well burned down the Christian right’s moralistic narrative along with a good bit of the more mainstream conservative cohort.

For those who have dismissed previous Papal exhortations (as well as any other messaging, written or otherwise delivered) as irrelevant and hypocritical drivel, and I count myself on this list, the recent missive is a shocker. Let’s take a look as some selected passages:

We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programmers, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality. I am far from proposing an irresponsible populism, but the economy can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded.

…

The need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be delayed, not only for the pragmatic reason of its urgency for the good order of society, but because society needs to be cured of a sickness which is weakening and frustrating it, and which can only lead to new crises. Welfare projects, which meet certain urgent needs, should be considered merely temporary responses. As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality,[173]no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.

Now this passage in particular stands out, and is a recurring theme throughout the document. Inequality is the root of all social ills. Not moral misbehavior. Rush Limbaugh is positively foaming at the mouth with this conclusion. You see, the story as told has to exonerate Capitalism, so the explanatory focus is redirected to not just suggest, but to demand that the moral lapses of the populace are the sole causality of a world gone bad.

After all, the world was given to us with abundance, work hard, maintain high moral standards, and its abundance will never run out. No limits to resources, no environmental disasters, no exploitation, nothing but paradise, unless of course you take a bite of that apple.

Spear Of Destiny - Religion - Front

Let’s go on:

Sometimes we prove hard of heart and mind; we are forgetful, distracted and carried away by the limitless possibilities for consumption and distraction offered by contemporary society. This leads to a kind of alienation at every level, for “a society becomes alienated when its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer the gift of self and to establish solidarity between people.

Karl is that you?

Genuine forms of popular religiosity are incarnate, since they are born of the incarnation of Christian faith in popular culture. For this reason they entail a personal relationship, not with vague spiritual energies or powers, but with God, with Christ, with Mary, with the saints. These devotions are fleshy, they have a face. They are capable of fostering relationships and not just enabling escapism. In other parts of our society, we see the growing attraction to various forms of a “spirituality of well-being” divorced from any community life, or to a “theology of prosperity” detached from responsibility for our brothers and sisters, or to depersonalized experiences which are nothing more than a form of self-centredness.

images

This would seem to be a dig at modern “strip mall religiosity” as it is now de rigueur to have non denominational churches in strip malls, repurposed industrial buildings, etc, all which have superficial distorted messaging, often pronouncing how wealth is your divine right.

Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to resolve. It serves only to offer false hopes to those clamouring for heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence, rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts. Some simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted generalizations, they claim that the solution is an “education” that would tranquilize them, making them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more exasperating for the marginalized in the light of the widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many countries – in their governments, businesses and institutions – whatever the political ideology of their leaders.

…

Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. When a society – whether local, national or global – is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility. This is not the case simply because inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded from the system, but because the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to spread, the toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful influence and quietly to undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may appear. If every action has its consequences, an evil embedded in the structures of a society has a constant potential for disintegration and death. It is evil crystallized in unjust social structures, which cannot be the basis of hope for a better future. We are far from the so-called “end of history”, since the conditions for a sustainable and peaceful development have not yet been adequately articulated and realized.

So now we get to the money shot:

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.

And

One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

…

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the socialized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

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Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers.

So this goes on in a similar vein, and this position does not bode well for the conservative narrative. We see capitalism explicitly blamed for inequality, and in turn inequality for societies ills, a disturbing cause and effect that is disruptive to the American status quo. Coming from a supposedly impartial and world recognized voice of moralistic guidance, this is particularly damning.

We have to ask given the (millennial) history of precisely just this set of teachings, where the hell have these people been for the last 400 years? Mired in child molestation cases, and other aspects of immeasurable hypocrisy, that’s where. Typically dispensing irrelevant teachings to a disinterested world, met with a yawn and the clink of coins in the Sunday collections basket, the cafeteria Catholics and faithful parishioners buy their penance on the free market of theology, shopping for workable edicts and morals they can live with, and leaving aside things that might prove troublesome.

And the Church, let’s not (yet) get all misty eyed that the new Pope has found his voice, that the Holy See can finally see after 400 years of Post Enlightenment blindness, because if we learned anything in the Dark Ages we learned the Church was an authoritarian, totalitarian institution, honed to perfection after centuries of practice, misappropriating Christianic themes in furtherance of its own power and hegemony. Restricting knowledge, capturing books, and distorting, twisting and interpreting discovery with a certain malleability of facts, and containing science to maintain its omnipotence.

It is worth noting that at its core, the Church operates as a corporatist entity, with significant focus on profits itself, poisoned if you will, by the very same sickness it chastises. So we might well leave the discussion here, hopeful that the new Papal vision will at least upset some belief systems, and file this under the category of good ideas for the wrong reasons, and move on to other superficial topics. Except that we have 2000 years of history here, history that resonates with this same message, repeated in many ways over and over again. We have a seminal event in the Enlightenment, which purported to shut down the fiefdoms, mysticism and fanciful explanations, replacing it with science and reason to wrest the power and authority from cloistered theocrats.

And this has failed.

None of the Post Enlightenment theories of political economy have provided satisfactory, sustainable solutions despite 400 years of trying. By most measures, they are in fact worse. The current fashionable trend to double down on technology as means of providing solutions is not working, and critical thinkers can see these measures are leading to cascading failure modes, with each technological “breakthrough” creating new and unanticipated failures of their own, with insufficient study as to unanticipated outcomes.

theatreofhate_zpsb312a704

I had occasion last month to attend a talk by Chris Hedges, the first time I have heard him in person. The venue was in Santa Monica in a historic building now owned by the Women’s Club, a depression era wood structure with a whitewashed paint job, faintly reminiscent of a church. The venue was packed to the rafters, with the upstairs balcony fairly bulging under the weight of way more people wanting to see Hedges than the organizers anticipated. Everyone finally got in to the standing room only crowd. Hedges has found his voice, he is articulate in person, but powerful, vocally projecting in a way I’ve not seen him do in taped interviews where he seems more reflective and almost mournful. His message is a powerful force and it is clear his upbringing under a Presbyterian minister (his father) and his education in seminary converge to forge his style and messaging. The emotion and power left me somewhat stunned, I wasn’t prepared for the electricity in the room and palpable agitation of the attendees who know full well the truth in his message.

It might seem that these events conspire to ordain a germ of an idea, a small, kindled spark that suggests, almost horrifically, that the assemblage of the capitalist mode of production is not a just theory of economics or political economy. It is not merely an exchange of commodities or a clever and oblique system of exploitation. It is not just a mechanism for conflicting class structure or means for the landed nobility to hold down the masses.

It is a religion, a theology so all consuming that it transcends borders, boundaries, catechism and Koran. It extends to every denomination, to every corner of the earth with a deification and worship of commerce and consumption so deeply ingrained that there is no inoculation once infected. Its participants trapped in a purgatory analogous to opium dens, transient pleasure of consumption and accumulation, but in the 19th century opium dens most knew to advise a friend to retrieve them after several hours (or days) as they would be unable- and unwilling- to leave on their own.

In this version, no one is coming to get you out, there is no getting out. No one is free from the addictive vapors of consumption.

 CAPITALISM AS RELIGION

a) First of all because, as we have seen, capitalism, by defining itself as the natural and necessary form of the modern economy, does not admit any different future, any way out, any alternative. Its force is, writes Weber, ‘irresistible’, and it presents itself as an inevitable fate.

b) The system reduces the vast majority of humanity to ‘damned of the earth’ who cannot hope for divine salvation, since their economic failure is the sign that they are excluded from God’s grace. Guilty for their own fate, they have no hope of redemption. The God of the capitalist religion, money, has no pity for those who have no money . . .

c) Capitalism is ‘the ruin of being’, it replaces being with having, human qualities with commodified quantities, human relations with monetary ones, moral or cultural values with the only value that counts, money.

d) Since humanity’s ‘guilt’ – its indebtedness towards Capital – is permanent and growing, no hope of expiation is permitted. The capitalist constantly needs to grow and expand his capital if he does not wish to be crushed by his competitors, and the poor must borrow more and more money to pay their debts.

e) According to the religion of Capital, the only salvation consists in the intensification of the system, in capitalist expansion, in the accumulation of more and more commodities; but this ‘remedy’ results only in the aggravation of despair.

So in other words, the will of God is substituted by the will of the market. The Saints of Capitalism are not represented by iconography in dusty church alcoves, rendered in plaster bas relief, illuminated by flickering votive candles aligned in perfectly concentric rows, no, these saints are reproduced on our paper money, mass produced by photoengraved plates and scaled to feel, to touch, with every transaction to reacquaint and remind the heathen that this is the portal to eternal salvation.

Our cathedrals are not limestone structures of centuries production, flying buttresses soaring gracefully to the heavens, constructed of a scale to intimidate and instill perspective of scale between creator and subject, no these cathedrals are chrome and glass, with banal and endless rows of cubicles for the disciples to prosthelytize to the unwashed masses, “lift yourself, take our hand and elevate yourself to the glory of all the money is and can be”.

Consume or be consumed, the entire New Testament may be reinterpreted not as a warning of end times, not as a statement of worldly evangelism, but each parable and writing a searing indictment and prophetic warning of a planet destroying insidious religion about to rise. The Original Sin may well be reduced to being born into a world which requires you to sell your labor power for survival, the baptism a cleansing in preparation of a lifelong participation in commodity exchange- labor for goods.

There is no expiation in the religion of Capitalism, it is game theory analogous to Newcomb’s Paradox, a contrivance where an omniscient being gives you two choices, one of which is already made for you, and analyzes your strategy for utility maximization when you know that your choice is already predetermined- and you cannot change the outcome.

Here’s hoping for the ninth Crusade.

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Down by Law

17 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by darbikrash in Capitalism, Consumerism, Corporate State

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

America's Collapsing Middle Class, “Inland Empire”, Blackstone Group, Capitalism, Class Consciousness, Corporate State, Financial Elite, Governor Jerry Brown, Gross Inequality, Jim Jarmusch’s 'Down By Law', Oaktree Capital Management, Political Economy, Real Estate Bubble, Regulatory Capture, Rentier Class, Ronald Reagan, San Bernardino County, Southern California, The Elite 1%, Wall Street Fraud

Jim Jarmusch’s 1986 masterpiece “Down by Law” with its rolling panorama of bleak pre-Katrina Louisiana, and distant, blank character stares suggesting inchoate malaise, effectively captured the unarticulated angst of the ascendant Reagan generation.

Like canaries in a coal mine, Jarmusch and other artists of the era anticipated the contemporary assault on class consciousness with pinpoint precision-decades in advance of the more cognitive punditry in evidence today.

This brings us to an interesting development in today’s post crash histrionics, which provides a conveniently compact diorama on display for all to view and interpret. We begin with what is intuitively obvious to any who care to observe, and that is the dynamic change in the character of the residential real estate market in most parts of the country, but especially evident in those areas hardest hit by the bursting bubble of speculative real estate.

This can be nicely cataloged by examining the infill areas of Southern California know as the “Inland Empire”.

Pre-2008 crash, these areas offered semi-affordable buying opportunities for homeowners priced out of the highly desirable coastal California markets, as well as respite for inner city residents looking to escape gang violence. Properties could be had for 1/3-1/2 of the price of a comparable dwelling in the more desirable areas near the coast and employment centers, but in return a 30-50 mile one way commute was extracted as compensation. In the era of $2/gal gas, this was deemed acceptable, especially as around the water cooler scuttlebutt yielded the notion that such a property could be bought and sold at a 50% profit 3 years later, with the proceeds used to buy a house closer to the employment centers thereby rendering the commute temporary.
This became a de rigueur business plan of many lower middle class workers, who one must acknowledge otherwise had a 1 in 10,000 chance in aggregating enough savings to achieve even a modicum of survivability in retirement.

I would make the case that the motivations were at the very least in line with the conventional bourgeoisie wisdom of bootstrapping one self’s upward in the social mobility chain by taking on some risk and making investments to better one’s life standing.

This explanation of course runs afoul of the current bourgeoisie narrative, which seeks to demonize those that participated in such shenanigans as irresponsible slobs and layabouts, lying on loan applications in a blatant attempt to defraud the salt of the earth folks in the financial industry of their hard earned capital. Because to concede that these people were simply following the time tried examples set forth by their more well endowed peers would be to point out structural cracks in a system that is perennially corrupt and unworkable.

So it goes something like this, if I do it and succeed, I shall be valorized, if you do the same thing and fail, it’s because you’re a dishonest layabout gaming the system.

OK, so now here is where it gets interesting.

The combination of rising gasoline prices, massive job losses and a real estate market in free fall meant that the “Inland Empire” was to become a major epicenter in residential foreclosures. To add insult to injury, the daily commutes to employment centers had become traffic nightmares, with a typical 40 mile commute taking 2 hours each way, so naturally private companies put in toll roads and toll lanes on state owned freeways and charged substantial toll fees to avoid this congestion.

As is well documented today, when 15 homes in a tract of 40 homes goes into foreclosure, no one else can sell their home either.
So guess what happens? Groups of institutionalized investors swoop in to buy these properties for pennies on the dollar, paying for them in cash as no realistic mechanism for property appraisal exists when such a large percentage of homes are in foreclosure.

All this anguish comes in pursuit of a modest home in the exurb of San Bernardino County, the epicenter of the Southern California housing crash. Plummeting values here sparked a vicious wave of foreclosures.

But it’s precisely because prices fell so far here that Sepe can’t buy a house now. In a sharp irony, many would-be homeowners in hard-hit markets can’t compete with a flood of all-cash offers from investors, some backed by Wall Street war chests.
So they’re missing out on the only upside of the real estate crash: historically low prices and interest rates.

The repeated rejections come despite Sepe’s solid qualifications: a stable job as a cell tower technician and a pre-approved home loan. He watches as houses hit the market, then get scooped up within an hour. He offered a battle metaphor to describe his plight.

“I am this little country,” he said. “And it’s like this huge country is coming and attacking my country, and I can’t win.”

No one thinks to consider this effect in terms of class consciousness, as the investors are of course valorized and the free market is commended for saving the real estate world in general, and those hapless former homeowners in particular. It is important to realize what is happening here, before our very eyes, and that is a.) the erasing and transference of an entire generation of home owners into permanent renters, and b.) the beginning of capital consolidation into the rentier class, effective displacing mom and pop rental property owners by big investment conglomerates like Blackstone Group and Oaktree Capital Management.

San Bernardino County, as well as two of its largest cities, Ontario and Fontana, stirred a national controversy when it recently considered — then shelved — a plan to use eminent domain to seize and restructure underwater mortgages. In a testament to the lasting effects of the crash, about 40% of borrowers in the region still owe more on their properties than they’re worth, according to mortgage tracking firm CoreLogic.

But a turnaround is well underway, thanks in part to deep-pocketed investors snapping up bargains with cash. The housing supply is now so tight that it’s common for home shoppers to put in 20 or 30 offers before securing a house, real estate agents say.

Aware of the destructive dynamic and further slide down the slope of income inequality, the county (with support from the State under Jerry Brown) put forth a proposal to seize the blighted properties under eminent domain laws, and then once owned by the county, to issue a county bond to provide funds at below market rates to loan back to the foreclosed homeowners allowing them to keep their homes.

Note the issue here is not so much below market loan rates, but availability of a lender (the county) to fill in for private mortgages, who will not loan under any circumstances into these blighted neighborhoods.

But of course this well meaning effort was drowned in the bathtub by the small gubymint crowd, you can well imagine the hew and cry of the conservative bourgeoisie when faced with such an obvious interference in the “free market”. Imagine the perceived travesty of a government entity intervening to prohibit free market evangelists from extracting their pound of flesh and smashing down an entire generation of the middle class back to the stone age and, I hope it goes without saying, perpetually converting these hapless suckers into a permanent revenue stream while they pay rent.

Private equity groups, including Oaktree Capital Management and Blackstone Group, have formed or partnered with companies dedicated to buying single-family homes. Unlike the flippers made famous by the housing boom, these institutional investors are in it for the long haul. They’re buying homes in bulk, then renting and holding them to reap long-term price appreciation.

Some of these private equity giants and Wall Street firms have employed former homebuilding pros and partnered with big apartment managers. Their plan is to transform the single-family home rental business, once a largely mom-and-pop affair, into a full-scale industry.

The Santa Monica real estate investment firm Colony Capital, founded by Tom Barrack, last year won an auction by the federal government to purchase 970 foreclosed homes in California, Arizona and Nevada from mortgage titan Fannie Mae for $176 million. Most of the California properties were in the Inland Empire.

Carrington Mortgage Holdings, based in Aliso Viejo, has partnered with Oaktree to buy and rent out single-family homes. Carrington spokesman Rick Sharga acknowledged that cash buyers have an advantage. But he said competition has helped revive a depressed market.

As promised, this neatly packaged diorama shows the full circle of exploitation and alienation of a full blown class war, in one easy to grasp trajectory:

– Financial capital consolidates and exploits the residential home mortgage market, securitizing these lousy loans for huge profits.

– When the boom goes bust, the same actors campaign aggressively to prohibit any mortgage relief, forcing widespread bankruptcies and foreclosures.

– The marketing arm of the financial capitalist spends tens of millions of dollars socializing the idea that these homeowners were and are morally deficient, and deserve no recourse. They are to be punished for their transgressions.

– These same financial capitalists with prey now firmly trapped then look for ways to further exploit their captives, and find examples in privatizing freeway systems to extract more revenue from commuters trapped in gridlock.

– The conservative and tea party fanatics interrupt their sheet-less Klan party long enough to advance the popular notion that further deregulation is needed, and demonize any government participation that might circumvent capital’s relentless desire to crush all but the few. In their capable hands, it becomes fashionable to decry government of any kind with a full throated call of Statism, and a groundswell is created to “restore liberty” and allow unfettered capitalism to thrive.

– Having discouraged any state intervention by conflating ideological association to diminished freedom, the mark is ready for the takedown. Large groups of investors swoop in with pennies-on-the-dollar all cash purchases of distressed properties en masse, displacing large segments of the population, and sometimes even renting the properties back to the original homeowner.

The upshot of this large scale displacement by capital effectively unwinds 70 years of New Deal and post WWII governance. State encouragement of home ownership was thought to be a useful means to ensure “skin in the game” for the working class, as in encouraging home ownership, labor strikes were thought to be less likely to occur with heady financial commitments hanging overhead, as well as community ties, might discourage labor activism.

They were right.

So this leaves a vulnerability and an internal contradiction, as large groups of former homeowners become permanent renters, they are disinclined to invest in the community, local economic spending goes way down (what renter will invest in the property?) impacting local business, and property crimes go way up as alienation and other side effects of visible and blatant exploitation percolate to the surface for the working class. Ironically, the size and magnitude of police state intervention will rise significantly as compared to the aborted eminent domain intervention, as now the upper middle class and general bourgeoisie will demand increased police (State) action to knock down property crimes and lawless behavior. Think police checkpoints and constant aerial drone surveillance of these communities.

The other effect as mentioned is the consolidation of the rentier class, wherein these large investment groups begin to “brand” the single family residence as part of a larger portfolio of related revenue streams, e.g. grouping big box stores nearby corporate owned rental developments in backdoor revenue sharing arrangements, eventually degrading to a truck system to more efficiently extract any remaining surplus from the working class. This large scale consolidation will bring the capitalist death spiral to small scale rentiers who own only a few rental properties, they will face exclusionary tactics wherein associated mercantilist outlets will give discounts to large company renters, but not to renters of the small independently owned properties. Further, the coercive laws of competition will be brought to bear on the independents, wherein access to community pools and other trinkets will be offered free or nearly free by the large corporate rent factories, and marketed as “lifestyle” destinations with corporate parties for renters only extending into the domain of social reproduction.

The demise of the independent rentier, or more aptly, the petite bourgeoisie, will follow almost as quickly as the former homeowner himself.

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A Nation of Hustlers and Swindlers

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by darbikrash in Capitalism, Consumerism, Corporate State

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

America's Collapsing Middle Class, Capitalism, Class Consciousness, Corporate State, Differential Accumulation, Financial Elite, Gross Inequality, Karl Marx, Maldistribution of Wealth, Morris Berman, Offshoring, Poverty, Rentier Class, The Elite 1%, Trailer Park Boys, Wage Slave, Wall Street Fraud

I’ve never seen such an avaricious society……John Adams

Far from the valorized notion of job creators, father figure capitalists and the land of milk and honey, Morris Berman rightly points out the roots of a system that demands one sell their labor power for substinence wages must of necessity- at some point- redirect to a swindle.

The mandate of selling one’s own labor power in a system that requires exploitation to function reduces the calculus of survival to one of two options:

1.) The availability of plentiful jobs with wages ratcheting upwards over the years, allowing the worker to attain financial independence through an eventual participation in rent seeking retirement.
-Or-
2.) Hitting the big payoff, the mother lode, striking it rich-in other words achieving success at the envied goal of rich accumulation, usually through starting their own business, day trading or some other similar scheme of differential accumulation.

I suppose there is a third option, which is the life of crime, e.g. using criminal means to achieve sufficient accumulation to attempt to satisfy, in perpetuity, the need to sell one’s labor power for substinence. This is also the thesis that professional gamblers prefer, but as we shall see from this post, there is not much difference from these options and option # 2 above.

Great wealth unexplained is often the accumulation of a series of crimes and illegalities undiscovered, from insider trading to market manipulation, monopolies and official corruption, occasionally mixed in with sheer dumb luck and ruthless disregard for the law.

That is why the wealthy are rarely the great artists, athletes, or inventors who they hold up as the example of excellence to which they can hardly presume. The modern wealthy generally create nothing except a climate of injustice, fraud, and corruption.

When times are good, as in the period of most of the 19th and early/mid 20th century, when labor is relatively scarce and wages relatively high, option 1 provides passable solace to the American middle class worker. From about 1970 onward, roughly coinciding with the onset of neo-liberal capitalism, we have toggled to a relative surplus of workers with the onset of cheap labor in the Far East. Now we have too many workers competing with a highly discounted foreign labor pool, with entire industries “offshored” to China with the easily anticipated resultant of a hollowed out community structure left behind, with insufficient tax base to support itself.

In addition, the capitalist mode of production has at the same time affected a massive maldistribution of wealth, wherein entire segments are using accumulated profits for rent seeking endeavor, extracting as much money from the economy as fast as possible with no regard to the consequences. So we have vast numbers of affluent and wealthy individuals with no place to invest with consistent returns, as the low hanging fruit of reliable investment opportunities for this class has been consumed by simply too much wealth chasing too few investment opportunities.

The intersection of these two phenomena goes a long way to explain our current situation, how we got here and why we are not likely to leave. Of course, all of this has been written and discussed previously ad nauseum, but for me, the puzzling question is why do people go along with what must now be for most, a clear case of cause and effect?

Even a cursory look at income and wealth distribution shows a 3σ distribution of income, in statistics this means that 99.6% of all income is captured with average value of some $22,500 in annual wage earner income. None of the values within this 3σ distribution of income is sufficient to satisfy the basic objective of achieving enough of a “nest egg” to catapult oneself into a comfortable retirement, given the current FDIC insured interest rates typically used for most retirees.

The conclusion- you must be a statistical outlier to achieve financial independence, you must somehow, against all odds, land in the 4σ-6σ range of incomes, which is to say .4%-.0001% of total wage earners. These are the probabilities of lotteries, hence my declaration to “The Lottery of the Middle Class”.
Why do vast numbers of people accept a system of forced exploitation with such small numbers of possible positive outcomes? It is a near statistical certainty that you will die with insufficient money to take care of yourself and family-even after 30 or 40 years of labor- why roll the dice on this almost certain bust?

The answer lies partially in Marx’s theory of class consciousness, and to be sure, if times are good and sufficient standard of living upgrades are provided, usually through technology, then people are not likely to dig too deeply into the underpinnings of probabilities. But when times are not good, when a labor surplus is apparent, and when even so called “guaranteed” rates of return are fast evaporating, what then?

Sociology has shown us that class consciousness is not all it was cracked up to be, it turns out Americans don’t necessarily begrudge others –in fields other than their own- the realization of outsized incomes, profits, and wealth. On a street where all the residents are plumbers, the house on the end of the street owned by an attorney is not criticized, under the presumption that he has more education, more experience, and has taken more risk-supposedly- to the furtherance of his “well deserved” wealth. After all, each plumber had the option to choose a field in law, goes the rationale, and instead went in to plumbing, and you reap what you sow, so to speak.

So this is part of it. And class consciousness is also a part of it too.

But increasingly, it is becoming evident that other factors are influencing the relative success of others within our immediate frame of reference. Many freshly minted law school graduates can’t get a job. Many “blue chip” trades and vocations cannot get work- at all. So something is wrong with this narrative, and this specter of doubt and confusion intersects nicely with the emergence of pop culture figures in professional sports, reality TV shows, and other public spectacles of wealth and accumulation.

This leads us to the lottery mentality, the barely conscious realization that we had better come up with some huge and rapid “winnings” if we are to propel ourselves into the outlier category, and achieve financial independence.

The specific reaction to this notion varies by income stratification, but the underlying themes are always the same, get rich, get rich quick, and get it at the expense of someone else. But for this to work, we need the lottery equivalent of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, we need a tacit acceptance of the necessity of exploitation, as we need to allow it’s existence- at our expense-until such time as we can harness the very same exploitative skill sets against someone else to benefit ourselves.

For those in the middle to upper middle class, this usually means some type of business scheme, a Walter Mittyesque flight of fancy that the intrepid entrepreneur will someday cook up a batch of Kettle Korn or beef jerky to sell at the local swap meet, or who has an invention of a Pet Rock or similarly useless contrivance with no redeeming social quality. These fanciful daydreams are part of the illusion, the faintly obscure vision that within all of our grasp is the Big Reveal, that golden idea that will launch us into the glorious world of senseless accumulation.

But statistics are unkind to the dreamer, the probabilities of any of these “ideas” propelling the prospective entrepreneur into the outlier categories is slim indeed. In a world were aggregate demand has been obliterated by a near complete loss of disposable income, and private debt has choked off any semblance of borrowing for such trinkets, the “market” for many of the useless doodads is non existent. And of the more substantial contributions to society that might garner realistic revenue, such as a new pharmaceutical compound or medical device, the squadrons of scientists needed and tens of millions of dollars of capital required relegate any substantive ideas to the universe of monopoly scale corporations.

Like the gleam of the Powerball Lottery MegaMillions, the pull is too great and the desperation too profound to ignore. So the Faustian bargain of turning a blind eye to the accelerating exploitation intrinsic in the capitalist mode of production is undertaken with a sigh and a shrug of indifference, for someday, it will be your turn. To deny the exploitation is to quit 5 minutes before the miracle has happened, to close off any avenue of the Walter Mitty fantasy, because if no one else gets it, than neither do you.

At the other end of income stratification, the lower class, we see a strikingly similar protocol, these actors are quite a bit more likely to buy an actual lottery ticket, preferring to dispense with the tedium of writing a business plan. Or perhaps it is to aspire to professional sports, or a reality TV show, or perhaps a rap star. All with statistically similar outcomes. But surprisingly, the mnemonic of the Donald Trumps of the world, haranguing and extolling those to bootstrap themselves off the dole into the riches that capitalism offers does trickle down to the trailer parks and tenements of the world.

Nowhere is this sad and pathetic prophesy more humorously portrayed than the outrageous Canadian television show (now off the air) Trailer Park Boys. Filmed as a faux “mockumentary” this show, which ran 7 seasons in Canada (and sporadically on American cable) was brilliant in its over the top portrayal of life in a trailer park. Dismissed by some as just crude humor (and be warned it is crude and profane in the extreme) the opening scenes of bucolic wonder with golden sunsets and neatly manicured yards, children playing on the swings all goes very, very wrong. The characters represent what it looks like when a community either cannot- or will not- sell their labor power and cannot exist in a normative society. The characters are perennially down market, no education, no social mobility and no future, they bond together under a thick haze of alcoholism and drug use, the show uses side splitting humor as salve to an extremely pathetic covalence, with the characters unable to differentiate between petty crime and legitimate commerce, as the differentiation is reduced to shades of barely discernable grey.

At this level of stratification the difference between a “business” that involves stealing shopping carts for scrap metal is no more or less noble than a Harvard graduate selling financial derivatives.

Stripping away any overture of intellectual loftiness, absent any academic commentary, the Trailer Park Boys reduce those bucolic sunsets into the banal vision of life on the fringes of Capitalism- and expose a nation of swindlers and hustlers, relying on a lottery to survive.

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Agent Orange

07 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by darbikrash in Capitalism, Consumerism

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

America's Collapsing Middle Class, Capitalism, Corporate State, Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, End-Stage Capitalism, Financial Elite, Homeowners Association, Housing Bubble, Privatization, Regulatory Capture, Rentier Class, Savings and Loan Crisis, The Elite 1%, Wall Street Fraud

mozilo

Dateline 1981, Orange County, CA and what was to become ground zero for global mortgage fraud, perpetrated by the likes of Angelo Mozilla, nicknamed by the media Agent Orange for his decadent fake (and very nearly orange) tan of the criminal overclass, we begin with the nascent dawn of Reagan’s “Morning in America” on the cusp of the soon to break Savings and Loan Crisis.

The scene was a 2 ½ hour drive to a nondescript 3 bedroom tract home in Huntington Beach, about a mile or two from the ocean. It was the parent’s home of a fellow college student who was taking advantage of their parent’s vacation to host a party, replete with backyard keg and the requisite single light bulb lamp nearby to prevent spills.

With all the irony of the two working parent hierarchy of the times, the homeowners were so busy with their jobs that neither had time to go to the beach, the dreary patina of tract home living had quietly subsumed the idealism of living near the beach.

This was not lost on the college aged son, who upon learning that the house would be vacant, promptly released word of the party. We arrived to the house after the considerable drive, and found amplifiers and a drum set already assembled in the living room, with microphone stand at the ready. After mingling aimlessly for an hour or two amongst the preppy college students with Izod shirt logos and sweaters with arms carefully folded around their necks, the cacophony of Bob Seger and the “Silver Bullet Band” began to grate on our nerves.

There is only so much you can take, but we knew something they did not-there was to be a special guest.

Indeed, after another stultifying hour, a beat up van pulled up out front, and three guys wearing surfer shorts and tee shirts came inside and plugged in their guitars. They played but three songs, and this was one of them:

Afterwards, they abruptly left. In the vacuum left behind, there was a palatable unease, sweaters were nervously adjusted, no one really said anything. Someone put the Bob Seger album back on, which thankfully was put out of its misery with the elliptical trajectory of an angry beer bottle.

Forward to 2008, high rise office towers with names like “Dieco”, “Countrywide”, and “Indy Mac” prominently displayed, which housed platoons of tens of thousands of mortgage workers who filled these towers every day. Their “products” were mortgages and refi’s, doling out money to whoever had a pulse and a desire to own a piece of the American dream, then securitizing these phony loans to sell off to pension funds and other unsuspecting investors.
The well publicized financing arm of the mortgage crisis gets all the attention, but behind the scenes we have something much more interesting occurring. To illustrate, we again go to the epicenter of all that went wrong in the mortgage cum real estate biz, Orange County, CA.

To enable the construction of vast numbers of new homes that will serve as the collateralization of these new dollars to be leant, we need institutional infrastructure designed to encourage inventor participation and insure equity growth. In other words, we need giveaways.
With infrastructure too big a charter for small independent developers and investors, a new entity emerged, that of the Master Planned Community. Usually dominated by large regional landowners with significant political connections already in place, they began in earnest to create circumstances favorable to large scale tract development, a process that was prototyped with the first large scale master planned community in the ‘70’s (Irvine, CA), and then rapidly ported to other states and counties.

In California, Prop 13 limits the amount of YOY property tax that can be assessed. But to grow and develop hundreds of thousands of new homes, this requires infrastructure, such as schools, utilities and roads. In the first major attempt to privatize large swaths of the public domain, a bond mechanism legislation called “Mello-Roos” was enacted, enabling developers to externalize all of the infrastructure costs onto the homeowners in the form of a tax supplement, which is not governed by Prop 13. It is very nearly impossible to buy new construction in CA without falling under this forced bond payment. It is often very near 100% of the standard (mandatory) State property tax. The bonds are nominally for 20 years, but most homeowners will tell you they never go away, constantly renewed with no redress for residents.

This privatization sets in motion the walling off of entire communities, and in so doing, of course some type of privatized governance must be constructed and imposed on the new homeowners so as to “protect their investment”. This is done in the form of an H.O.A, or homeowners association, who govern and regulate the homeowners under a privatized army of volunteers, enforcing a Byzantine set of rules and regulations. They do so by collecting the H.O.A dues, which can range up to $800-900/month in some communities, paid monthly by each homeowner, and it should be noted that failure to pay will result in forfeiture of your property.

The bylaws and regulations that are administered by the H.O.A are published in a lengthy document (usually several hundred pages) listing all the infractions that can result in a penalty being assessed. They govern what color you can paint your house, what contractor you must use for painting your house, how neat your yard must be (mandatory landscaping) strict architectural rules (no changes allowed) and incredibly, how long your garage door may remain open during the day, how long your trash cans may remain on the street after pickup, and strict “lifestyle” provisions.
If you violate any one of the hundreds of regulations, you will be assessed a fine, and if you fail to pay the fine, you will forfeit your property. To enforce this, a group of volunteers usually “walks” the neighborhood, clipboards in hand, to note any and all infractions that can result in fines being assessed.

Hell hath no fury like a HOA privatized government volunteer with clipboard in hand and hard hat jauntily worn, the stern gaze of compliance ready to stare down errant homeowners foolhardy enough to think their carbon copy “Plan B” faux Mediterranean air conditioned nightmare is their castle. The lender has collateralized 30 years of any and all possible equity appreciation in the form of a mortgage, the HOA has established a privatized, regulation filled “government” that under the guise of mutual contractual consent has put in place rules and regulations that no public government on earth would get away with, sublimely forfeiting many constitutional protections (such as due process), including specifically forfeiting the ability to file homestead claims on your own property (protection for the primary residence from creditors in the event of a personal bankruptcy), the authoritarian noose of end stage capitalism begins to tighten the slipnot of compliance around the necks of the middle class homeowners, who almost universally wave their tiny flags and shout liberty, down with government, and up with free markets, blissfully unaware just how far down the river they have been sold.

Home ownership was originally advocated at the national level in the late ‘40’s just after WWII as a means to give the middle class a “stake” in their future, but mostly to discourage civil unrest under the principle that property ownership was an impediment to middle class organization of anti-establishment activities.

My, look how far we’ve come.

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The Promised Land

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by darbikrash in Capitalism, Corporate State

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Austerity for the Poor, Corporate Masters, Corporate State, Corporate-Controlled Media, Corporatocracy, Crooked Timber, Finance (Money Lending) Capitalism, Financial Elite, Financialization of the Economy, Free Market Ideologues, Heritage Foundation, Industrial capitalism, Inverted Totalitarianism, Koch Brothers, LibertariCato Institute, Mercantilist Capitalism, Neofeudalism, Political Economy, Privatization, Regulatory Capture, Rent-Seeking, Rentier Class, Security and Surveillance State, Surplus Value, The Elite 1%

It would be a mistake to view today’s finance capitalism as the “final stage” of industrial capitalism. The name of the new game is neofeudalism and austerity, and its preferred mode of exploitation is debt peonage. Like creditors in ancient Rome, today’s financial power is seeking to replace democracy with a financial oligarchy. The result is a resurgence of pre-capitalist “primitive accumulation,” by debt creation and foreclosure rather than the military conquests of past epochs.

Much of the dismantling of the social fabric that describes the general malaise of our times is not visible to the consumer or generic citizen. However, to peer down the darkened hallways in the backstage of American business is to glimpse the machinations of a frightening leviathan that subsumes social power in a manner that cannot be conceptualized in the traditional left vs. right paradigm.

The issue at hand is privatization, the stalwart conviction that free markets are the only means of adjudication for the natural tension between self seeking utility maximization of the individual, and the needs and rights of society as a independent entity. The perpetrators have constructed an arena of false contest, populated with sacrificial ideological tropes in pursuit of their real agenda.

It is the purpose of this article to examine some of the hidden means by which privatization- as practiced by the bourgeoisie- is being used to subsume the sovereignty of both individuals and small businesses.

A critical component to understanding privatization is to understand the need for obfuscation, e.g. to become invisible. Barring this, the next best defense against revolution and dissent is to deny that any disagreement exists, or if it does, then to valorize it and present it as irrefutable status quo, thus enjoining the conservatives who are loathe to change anything deemed as established, and can be counted on to circle the wagons in the so called “pursuit of liberty”.

Staunchly in the category of invisibility is the entire concept of rent-seeking, which is to say, the premise of unearned labor, or in plain English, getting something for nothing. Much of the financial economy of today is nearly totally dedicated to rent-seeking activities, so called financial engineering that attempts, through various debt mechanisms, to extract value from either land or industrial production without adding any value whatsoever. (For a particularly good and thorough discussion of rent seeking see this article)

If you are getting something for nothing, the last thing you want is for anyone else to know of this; so much of the current media discussion is either valorizing the financial class, or by working to maintain the invisibility of the rent-seeking genre. An understanding of this rent-seeking activity, and it’s relationship to so-called “free market” dynamics is critical to debunking the more mainstream conservative and Libertarian theories of economics, which crumble rather quickly within this framework.

Another frame of reference which adds to this discussion is a remedial listing of the three circuits of Capitalism, a.) Industrial capitalism, b.) Mercantilist Capitalism, and c.) Finance (Money lending) Capitalism. All three strains utilize exploitation to achieve access to surplus value, and all three seek to exchange supra-profits for social power. To illustrate, we can look at the Forbes list of the top 10 wealthiest Americans, and we can see that these three strains are all represented:

1. Bill Gates Microsoft (Industrial Capitalist)
2. Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway (Finance Capitalist)
3. Larry Ellison Oracle (Industrial Capitalist).
4. Christy Walton Walmart (Mercantile Capitalist)
5. Charles Koch manufacturing, energy (Industrial Capitalist)
6. David Koch manufacturing, energy (Industrial Capitalist)
7. Jim Walton Walmart (Mercantile Capitalist)
8. Alice Walton Walmart (Mercantile Capitalist)
9. S. Robson Walton Walmart (Mercantile Capitalist)
10. Michael Bloomberg (Finance Capitalist)

What is interesting about the relationship of these three strains is the internal competition for surplus value which is quite remarkable and very vigorous. Most of the publicized argument for regulatory constraints against the Finance Capitalist for example, is not from consumers or citizens, but stems from Industrial Capitalists who are loathe to give up surplus value to rent-seekers, preferring instead to capture this surplus for their own uses.

To further set the stage for our discussion, we can examine briefly the extents of control on modern media and the political economy by these three strains. The Financial Capitalists dominate the levers of power through direct capture of government figures, usually by interchanging and exchanging employees back and forth through key positions, as well their highly documented financial contributions. The Mercantilists however, are dominant in the advertising media, preferring instead to take their case directly to the consumer, shaping and stimulating demand by convincing consumers to purchase products and services that they did not know they needed. The long standing and principal Industrial Capitalists of course use both media and government to advance their objectives, but they add another dimension to their ideological control by purchasing controlling stakes in free market think tanks, such as the Libertarian Cato Institute (Koch brothers), the Heritage Foundation, and many others. Most of the so called “free market” think tanks that are influential on public policy can be traced to a controlling interest from Industrial Capital.

So we can see that the three strains of capital have hegemony in their own unique portals, influencing public policy with free domain to the exchange of their out-sized surplus values into social power.

The end game of all this is for the furtherance of rent-seeking activities. This is done in many different ways, but the subject of this article is a focus on privatization, and specifically the behind-the-scenes activities that are imposed on small businesses as well as employees.

The top level observation regarding the push to privatization is that it simply allows capitalist enterprise, large and small, to subvert constitutional protections by engaging private citizens in superficially mutual contracts. Modern political philosophy has been co-opted to allow wide ranging civil rights abuses under the cover of “mutual consent” in the context of a contract between private parties.

Examples would be private party contracts between employees (employment agreements) and between large and small businesses (supply agreements) .
Once private citizens enter into so called mutual contracts, the court system provides wide latitude for enforcement of virtually any draconian measure, as long as two private parties ostensibly agree. In many cases, basic constitutional protections are circumvented, and the entire principle of political economy is upended in the favor of the author of the contract. In theory, the employee or small business has the “right” to not sign any agreement which runs roughshod over his best interests, but in practice, such options are not readily available, particularly for employment agreements, when a prospective employee may be in desperate need of a job, as he or she is forced to sell his labor power for sustenance wages. If there are insufficient offerings of competing private employment contracts (as is often the case) the prospective employee must take what he can get- however onerous and biased the contractual terms are.

This is of course the objective of the Capitalist economy, to 1.) insure a standing army of unemployed workers, at the ready, to fill on demand openings in the Capitalist mode of production, incurring no costs to the Capitalist until such time as this labor power is needed, and then when needed to hire only using draconian and highly biased employment agreements that transfer State-like control to a Capitalist entity that is much better positioned to provide enforcement. 2.) To externalize costs to the greatest degree possible, such as societal infrastructure costs, by creating a privatized, Capitalist entity to take over former State controlled functions and to apply the aforementioned labor principles to realize this new profit center, that can cater such services only to these that can afford them, while exploiting those that provide labor power to these privatized entities.

Once these externalized functions are brought under the umbrella of the Capitalist mode of production, the issue of mutually agreeable contract law can be brought to bear to strip these workers of their Constitutional rights, and further weaken any efforts to consolidate and resist.

The folks over at Crooked Timber have provided some particularly good examples and arguments around this notion of using contract law to subvert even basic liberties:

Life at Work

To understand the limitations of these …….. we have to understand how little freedom workers enjoy at work. Unfreedom in the workplace can be broken down into three categories.
1. Abridgments of freedom inside the workplace
On pain of being fired, workers in most parts of the United States can be commanded to pee or forbidden to pee. They can be watched on camera by their boss while they pee. They can be forbidden to wear what they want, say what they want (and at what decibel), and associate with whom they want. They can be punished for doing or not doing any of these things—punished legally or illegally (as many as 1 in 17 workers who try to join a union is illegally fired or suspended). But what’s remarkable is just how many of these punishments are legal, and even when they’re illegal, how toothless the law can be. Outside the usual protections (against race and gender discrimination, for example), employees can be fired for good reasons, bad reasons, or no reason at all. They can be fired for donating a kidney to their boss (fired by the same boss, that is), refusing to have their person and effects searched, calling the boss a “cheapskate” in a personal letter, and more. They have few rights on the job—certainly none of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendment liberties that constitute the bare minimum of a free society; thus, no free speech or assembly, no due process, no right to a fair hearing before a panel of their peers—and what rights they do have employers will fight tooth and nail to make sure aren’t made known to them or will simply require them to waive as a condition of employment. Outside the prison or the military—which actually provide, at least on paper, some guarantee of due process—it’s difficult to conceive of a less free institution for adults than the average workplace.

2. 2. Abridgements of freedom outside the workplace
In addition to abridging freedoms on the job, employers abridge their employees’ freedoms off the job. Employers invade employees’ privacy, demanding that they hand over passwords to their Facebook accounts, and fire them for resisting such invasions. Employers secretly film their employees at home. Workers are fired for supporting the wrong political candidates (“work for John Kerry or work for me”), failing to donate to employer-approved candidates, challenging government officials, writing critiques of religion on their personal blogs (IBM instructs employees to “show proper consideration…for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory—such as politics and religion”), carrying on extramarital affairs, participating in group sex at home, cross-dressing, and more. Workers are punished for smoking or drinking in the privacy of their own homes. (How many nanny states have tried that?) They can be fired for merely thinking about having an abortion, for reporting information that might have averted the Challenger disaster, for being raped by an estranged husband. Again, this is all legal in many states, and in the states where it is illegal, the laws are often weak.

3. 3. Use of sanctions inside the workplace as a supplement to—or substitute for—political repression by the state
While employers often abridge workers’ liberty off the job, at certain moments, those abridgments assume a larger function for the state. Particularly in a liberal state constrained by constitutional protections such as the First Amendment, the instruments of coercion can be outsourced to—or shared with—the private sector. During the McCarthy period, for example, fewer than 200 men and women went to jail for their political beliefs, but as many as 40% of American workers—in both the public and private sectors—were investigated (and a smaller percentage punished) for their beliefs.

And, perhaps most succinctly:

What makes the private sector, especially the workplace, such an attractive instrument of repression is precisely that it can administer punishments without being subject to the constraints of the Bill of Rights. It is an archipelago of private governments, in which employers are free to do precisely what the state is forbidden to do: punish without process. Far from providing a check against the state, the private sector can easily become an adjutant of the state. Not through some process of liberal corporatism but simply because employers often share the goals of state officials and are better positioned to act upon them.

Link

So this is the end state that the “free market” evangelists push for, this is the holy grail of privatization, externalized costs to a system that can act outside of the constraints of the Bill of Rights.

We can extend this discussion to the even further reaches of transparency, that of the nature of contracts between large and small businesses. In addition to the above noted employer/employee social relations enforced under a Capitalist entity governed by private contract, the same private contract modality has some startling repercussions for business:

1.) Mercantilists demand slotting fees to product producers for prominent product (shelf) placement at retail locations. They routinely create profit centers with draconian shipping requirements, for example, if a shipping label is off center from a specific location on a carton by even an inch, the producer is fined for each instance of this deviation. Missing or incorrectly filled out paperwork, spelling errors, any excuse for a “deviation” results in a back charge (fine) to the producers. It is not unusual to see small manufacturers shipping product to “big box” retailers, and to have so many back charges that their entire profit margin is consumed before the first unit is even sold. Which of course, is the goal.

2.) Small manufacturers are expected to honor dubious return policies, many large retailers force contract language on suppliers that require them to accept returns months, sometime years after shipment, often when the product was clearly misused. Replacement costs are often entirely pushed onto the supplier, yielding a system that is nearly impossible to accurately track inventory, when such products are never really sold, if they can be returned for full credit months later.

3.) Contract language for even small, non-mercantilist orders has escalated dramatically over the last few years. Consider:
a. Supply agreements can dictate and restrict any outspoken political dissent or endorsement.
b. You can be forced to decline sales within certain industries, to certain customers deemed competitive to the purchaser, or constrained to within certain geographic radii.
c. You can be prohibited from selling a certain product or service to anyone but the original purchaser.
d. You can be forced to accept liability for failures that have nothing to do with your product or service.
e. You can be forced to submit to a dress code for certain customer facing events, and translate this code internally to your own organization.
f. You are often forced to agree to all types of intrusive audits, in some cases unannounced, and can be forced to absorb any lost production costs or accounting support costs in support of these audits- regardless of their outcome.

4.) But perhaps most egregiously, it is now increasingly common to submit to mandatory electronic form of payment, wherein you provide your confidential banking account information, and payment is only made, and cannot be made any other way, by means of a wire transfer directly into your private business account. Reading of the small print in the contract yields an almost universal caveat, the payer can reverse any payment immediately and electronically, directly from your account, without notice and without permission; further, if there is any payment dispute, fines or penalties, or the occurrence of any perceived damages and liability that can result in charge backs to you, the supplier, these can be extracted without notice and without permission.
If you read the fine print on any recent home mortgage documentation you will see similar examples of this from our friends the Finance Capitalists, and if you are foolish enough to consider borrowing money for a business venture from a Finance Capitalist, you will get a first class education in exploitation via contract documents.

The sum total of all this, under the mantle of privatization, is the absolute and unchallenged control by the large scale Capitalist of both consumer and small business based endeavor, seeking to capitalize any surplus value that is achieved though small business or consumer debt onset, and to reduce this to rent-seeking in a fashion that would put Mussolini to shame.

Turns out the devil you don’t know is far worse than the devil you do know.

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Who really pulls the strings?:

The megawealthy and Washington have become so symbiotic as to be a single entity. The bought-and-paid politicians sitting in Washington are simply the marionettes of the corporations and financial elite who are dictating public policy and regulations.

Preserving the Status Quo

There is no right wing or left wing, only the aristocracy and the serfs (a vertical paradigm). To know this is to be like a fish who has broken the surface of the water, realizing he was in water the whole time.

A Kabuki Play

"What we have, in what passes for US democracy in 2012, is a kabuki play that Cicero put to papyrus 1948 years earlier. All historical empires and war aggressors have used propaganda to claim their looting and police states were necessary and helpful to the 99%. Instead, a sorrowful history tells us they were almost always for the sole benefit of the 1%." - Albert Bates

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  • Power Shift Away From Green Illusions
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  • RENEWABLE ENERGY – THE ARGUMENT AGAINST ITS CAPACITY TO SUSTAIN AN ENERGY-INTENSIVE SOCIETY
  • Richard Reese on 'Near Term Extinction'
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  • Searching for a Miracle: 'Net Energy' Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society
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  • Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter planet, by Mark Lynas
  • Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
  • Stephanie McMillan's 'Capitalism Must Die'
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  • The Anarchist Library
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  • Thomas Homer-Dixon
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  • Have You Remembered Your Pets in Your Will? March 3, 2021
  • The Covid Coaster March 2, 2021
  • Sarkozy conviction March 2, 2021
  • Saudi Coddle March 2, 2021

RSS Cassandra’s Legacy

  • Cassandra has Moved February 12, 2021
  • Cassandra is Dead. Long Live Cassandra! February 8, 2021
  • Censorship: How the West is becoming more and more like the old Soviet Union February 1, 2021
  • Donald Trump: The Sacrifice of the Sacred King January 29, 2021
  • The Ghost Shirt Rituals: Preparing for the End of the World January 25, 2021

RSS Censored News

  • OAK FLAT -- FOREST SERVICE PUTS SACRED OAK FLAT LAND GIVEAWAY ON TEMPORARY HOLD "FOR SEVERAL MONTHS" March 1, 2021
  • AIM Liberation Day 2021 February 28, 2021
  • Midnight backroom deal threatens to wipe out Apache sacred site. Apache Stronghold makes emergency appeal to Ninth Circuit to save Oak Flat February 24, 2021

RSS Center For Biological Diversity

  • Buscan la protección de flores silvestres de Arizona y México y bajo la Ley de Especies Amenazadas en EEUU March 3, 2021
  • Endangered Species Act Protection Proposed for Rare Arizona, Mexico Wildflower March 3, 2021
  • Lawsuit Aims to Protect Threatened Iconic Hawaiian Forest Bird March 3, 2021

RSS Center for Investigative Journalism

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RSS Center for Economic & Policy Research

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RSS Charles Eisenstein’s Blog

  • Entwicklung im Zeitalter der Ökologie October 30, 2018
  • Das Zeitalter, in dem wir einander brauchen November 20, 2017

RSS Chomsky

  • The Kind of Anarchism I Believe in, and What's Wrong with Libertarians June 9, 2013
  • Upcoming speaking event in Boston with Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and Jeremy Scahill April 19, 2013

RSS Chris Hedges

  • Imagining A New World on the Other Side of the Pandemic March 20, 2020

RSS Class Warfare Blog

  • Made You Look—A Documentary February 27, 2021
  • The China Hustle February 25, 2021

RSS Cliff Schecter

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RSS Climate and Capitalism

  • The Ministry for the Future: A passionate call to save the earth March 1, 2021
  • UN Report: Action Needed Now to Solve Triple Emergency February 18, 2021
  • Global Ice Melt: Much Faster Than Predicted February 18, 2021
  • Lithium, Batteries and Climate Change February 11, 2021
  • Ecosocialist Bookshelf, February 2021 February 9, 2021
  • Intensive Fishing and the Birth of Capitalism February 3, 2021

RSS Climate Central

  • Climate Change Threatens Homes of Boston’s Most Vulnerable
  • The Carbon Skyscraper
  • Miami Beach’s Housing Crisis Worsened By Climate Change
  • Viviendas asequibles en riesgo de inundaciones costeras

RSS Climate Change: The Next Generation

  • Amy Westerfelt: The Reason COVID-19 and Climate Seem So Similar: Disinformation April 27, 2020
  • Bill McKibben's response to Michael Moore's Planet of the Humans April 24, 2020
  • WaPo: The Congo rain forest is losing ability to absorb carbon dioxide. That’s bad for climate change March 8, 2020

RSS Climate Citizen

  • The Australia Clause and Kyoto Carryover Credits demystified December 12, 2020
  • 5 Year Fossil Awards - the Paris Agreement Five years on and Australia December 12, 2020
  • DELWP fails consumer choice on electricity plans and greenhouse gas emissions September 25, 2020

RSS Climate Code Red

  • Zero by 2050 or 2030? 1.5°C or 2°C? Overshoot or not? Demystifying carbon budgets. March 2, 2021
  • Matters of fact that we ignore at our peril February 7, 2021
  • New research on forests and oceans suggest projections of future warming may be too conservative, with serious consequences January 26, 2021

RSS Climate Connections

  • Climate Connections Update February 5, 2015
  • CIC’s environmental and social justice photography contest open for entries January 9, 2015
  • FBI Harassing Activists in Pacific Northwest January 7, 2015

RSS Climate Denial Crock of the Week

  • Jennifer Granholm on “The View” March 3, 2021
  • New Video: Texas Blackouts a Failure of “Baseload Power” March 3, 2021
  • Adding Up the Costs of Texas Blackout March 3, 2021

RSS Climate Progress

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RSS Climate Snapshot

  • "Carbon tsunami" lead by Enbridge Northern Gateway takes aim at BC June 18, 2014
  • BC's tar sands? Thirteen proposed LNG projects equivalent to 13 times current BC emissions June 9, 2014
  • Car Carbon series: cool new animation, plus the jaw-dropping impact it left out May 13, 2014
  • Climate change fuels both California's record drought and "polar vortex" storms May 6, 2014

RSS ClimateSight

  • Talking, typing, and the social model of disability July 22, 2020
  • We need your help! Share your views on climate change with us. October 21, 2019
  • Ice sheet melting: it’s not just about sea level rise September 23, 2019

RSS Club Orlov

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RSS ClusterFuck Nation

  • March 2021 March 2, 2021
  • Party Like It’s 1984 March 1, 2021

RSS Cocktailhag – FDL

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RSS Colin Tudge

  • Let's not bet the farm | Colin Tudge April 3, 2013
  • Why the world needs a renaissance of small farming | Colin Tudge September 18, 2012

RSS Common Dreams: News

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RSS Consumer Energy Report

  • Notice: New R-Squared Is rrapier.com June 3, 2017
  • Contact Information And Blog Migration Update May 19, 2017
  • Guest Post: Offshore Wind Power Cost Update April 20, 2017
  • The Peak Oil Estimate You Won’t Believe: A Tale Of Two Sigmoids March 28, 2017

RSS Corp Watch

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RSS CorrenteWire

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RSS CorrenteWire – Quick Hits

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RSS Counter Currents

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RSS CounterPunch

  • Cornel West – “My Ridiculous Situation at Harvard” March 3, 2021
  • Biden’s Quandary: Proxy Wars and Endless Wars March 3, 2021
  • Ruling Class Joe and the Essence of American Politics March 3, 2021
  • Policing Universities by Neoliberal Governments in the UK And France March 3, 2021
  • Andrew Cuomo: Legend of a Fall March 3, 2021
  • Defend the Guard Act Stirs Debate in West Virginia Over Military Industrial Complex March 3, 2021
  • What We Got in Biden March 3, 2021
  • Back to the Future March 3, 2021
  • Public Sector Unions Mean Middle-Class Jobs for Black Workers March 3, 2021
  • Time for the Warren-Jayapal Wealth Tax March 3, 2021

RSS Crooked Timber

  • The Boys Aren’t Back in Town March 3, 2021
  • Introduction:Economic Consequences of the Pandemic March 3, 2021
  • Too many choices March 3, 2021
  • Twigs and branches February 28, 2021

RSS Crooks and Liars

  • Biden Rightly Rips GOP Governors For 'Neanderthal' Decisions March 3, 2021
  • Fox News Giddy Over Texas' No Mask Mandate March 3, 2021
  • Army Covered Up Mike Flynn's Brother's Participation In National Guard Call March 3, 2021
  • Spurs Coach Blasts Abbott's Decision To Reopen Texas As 'Ignorant' And 'Ridiculous' March 3, 2021

RSS Cryptome

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RSS Culture Change

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RSS Dahr Jamail

  • Life in the US Has the Hallmarks of a “Low-Grade War Zone” September 21, 2020
  • Fracking Company Has Made It Rain Toxic Water Upon New Mexico Without Penalty September 3, 2020

RSS Daily Kos Comics

  • Carton: Bright future February 22, 2021
  • Cartoon: See spot run March 3, 2021
  • Cartoon: Shoots & Ladders March 2, 2021
  • Cartoon: Naked partisans March 2, 2021
  • Cartoon: The lost year March 1, 2021
  • Cartoon: Fools March 1, 2021

RSS Damn the Matrix

  • The Day of Reckoning is nigh February 27, 2021
  • The gospel according to Jean-Marc February 27, 2021

RSS Dan Hagen

  • Santayana: Where Happiness Resides March 2, 2021
  • Helicopters on Mars, Cretins on Earth February 20, 2021

RSS Dangerous Intersection

  • Framing is Everything: Case Study of the K-Shape Economic Recovery March 2, 2021
  • Question and Answer Regarding Womxn March 2, 2021
  • The New York Times Finally Wakes Up to the Dangers and Dysfunctions of Wokeness March 2, 2021

RSS Dark Ages America

  • 420 March 3, 2021
  • 419 February 17, 2021
  • 418 February 7, 2021
  • 417 January 31, 2021

RSS David Bollier

  • Andreas Weber on Aliveness and Interdependence February 23, 2021
  • 'The New Systems Reader': Strategies for System-Change February 17, 2021
  • Jimmy Buff and the Radio Kingston Commons January 31, 2021

RSS David Cay Johnston (Link – National Memo)

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RSS David Cay Johnston (Link – Tax Analysts)

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RSS David Harvey

  • Video: We Need a Collective Response to the Collective Dilemmas of Our Time November 13, 2020
  • New Book: The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles October 20, 2020
  • Video: David Harvey’s Recommended Marxian Reads September 23, 2020

RSS David Hilfiker

  • Welcome August 4, 2011

RSS David McNally

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RSS David Roberts

  • Seattle’s unbelievable transportation megaproject fustercluck June 5, 2015
  • Please support Grist April 10, 2015
  • There’s an emerging right-wing divide on climate denial. Here’s what it means (and doesn’t) April 8, 2015

RSS Death by Car: Capitalism’s Drive to Carmageddon

  • Brandalism February 19, 2021
  • Cars and the Crappy Society February 16, 2021
  • Maine DOT’s Celebration February 16, 2021
  • Automakers Now Openly Admitting to Haloware Ops January 14, 2021
  • Museum of Impending Carmageddon: Piece #2 January 7, 2021

RSS Decline of the Empire

  • Fascism Marches On — Episode 1
  • There Is No Middle

RSS Deep Green Resistence News Service

  • India’s Farmers’ Protests Are About More Than Reform — They Are Resisting The Corporate Takeover Of Agriculture March 3, 2021
  • “Interesting” Times: Capitalism Kills Everything March 2, 2021
  • The History Of Thacker Pass [Dispatches from Thacker Pass] March 1, 2021
  • The Gender Identity Industry, Transhumanism and Posthumanism February 28, 2021

RSS Deepak Tripathi’s Diary

  • UK’s Brexit Maze October 29, 2019
  • Book Review: Me the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy August 23, 2019

RSS Democratic Underground

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RSS Democratic Underground – Breaking News

  • Self-Proclaimed Billionaire Trump Now Begging Small-Dollar Donors For Money March 4, 2021
  • GOP Senate hopeful in Ohio takes aim at Republican governor over mask mandate March 4, 2021
  • Water crisis continues in Mississippi, weeks after cold snap March 4, 2021
  • Inspector General's Report Cites Elaine Chao for Misuse of Office March 4, 2021
  • First Lady Jill Biden visits Meriden to tour elementary school with new U.S. education secretary.... March 3, 2021
  • GOP Sen. Ron Johnson to force Senate clerks to read text of $1.9 trillion covid-relief bill March 3, 2021
  • House to adjourn early over intelligence that groups may be planning another Capitol attack March 3, 2021
  • Greg McDermott offered to resign, but that's not what Creighton's players wanted March 3, 2021
  • Covid Relief Package to Include Billions for Black Farmers March 3, 2021
  • Canadian 'incel' killer found guilty of murder over Toronto van attack March 3, 2021

RSS Democratic Underground – Good Reads

  • Chatelain: Even in Omaha, the word 'plantation' carries 400 years of 'dehumanization' March 4, 2021
  • How Marjorie Taylor Greene Won, And Why Someone Like Her Can Win Again March 3, 2021
  • BTRTN: Biden Back Better - The Political Maturation of Joe Biden March 3, 2021
  • CPAC, conservatives and the culture war: Why Republicans will become more extreme in Trump's absence March 3, 2021
  • The Memo: Is Trump mounting a comeback -- or finally fading? March 3, 2021
  • Dutch Protocol for transgender children/teens doctor issues caution March 3, 2021
  • Shatel: What happens now with Creighton coach Greg McDermott? March 3, 2021
  • Democrats must decide whether they want to govern or let Republicans hold them hostage March 3, 2021
  • Dystopian 'Digidog'- Robo-Dog Now Patrols New York City, The Last Thing We Need March 3, 2021
  • Brazil Virus Variant: Infected Many Who Had Recovered From Covid-19; Now In US States March 3, 2021

RSS Democracy Now

  • Latinx Farmworkers Risk Their Lives During Pandemic. Many Now Struggle to Access Vaccines March 3, 2021
  • Cuomo Must Go: Calls Grow to Remove NY Governor over COVID Nursing Home Cover-up & Sexual Harassment March 3, 2021
  • Asian American Communities Organize Against Rise in Hate Crimes, Say More Policing Is Not the Answer March 3, 2021
  • Headlines for March 3, 2021 March 3, 2021
  • Anti-Choice Forces Use Pandemic to Slash Abortion Access in Preview of Post-Roe v. Wade World March 2, 2021
  • Black People Face Higher COVID Infections & Deaths. Should They Have Lower Age Cutoffs for Vaccines? March 2, 2021
  • A New Form of Jim Crow: Ari Berman on the GOP's Anti-Democratic Assault on Voting Rights March 2, 2021
  • Headlines for March 2, 2021 March 2, 2021
  • Burmese Scholar: Military Junta Using Terror Against "Entire Population" to Keep Power After Coup March 1, 2021
  • Rep. Ro Khanna: Democrats Should Ignore the Senate Parliamentarian and Pass $15 Minimum Wage Hike March 1, 2021

RSS Derrick Jensen

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RSS Desdemona Despair

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RSS Desertification

  • The Great Green Wall: Implementation Status and Way Ahead to 2030 February 26, 2021
  • Round table discussion on good land governance for land degradation neutrality February 25, 2021
  • Cattle and citizens in Nigeria February 25, 2021
  • Monitoring landcover change and desertification processes in northern China and Mongolia using historical written sources and vegetation indices February 25, 2021
  • Expanding Gum Arabic production to combat desertification February 25, 2021

RSS deSmog Blog

  • UK Climate Diplomacy Staff Cut Again as Post-Brexit Links to Trump and US Deniers Strengthen November 24, 2016
  • UN Human Rights Experts Condemn Expanding Petrochemical Industry in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley as 'Environmental Racism' March 4, 2021
  • Pennsylvania Families Exposed to Unusually High Levels of Oil and Gas Industry Chemicals, Report Finds March 3, 2021

RSS Digbys Blog

  • Untitled January 12, 2020
  • They can save the world by @BloggersRUs January 12, 2020
  • Just drifting: R.I.P. Buck Henry By Dennis Hartley January 12, 2020
  • It looks like he wants to take Iraq's oil money January 12, 2020
  • Untitled January 11, 2020
  • Let's not forget who worked with Suleimani's IRGC January 11, 2020

RSS Disinfo – Ecology

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RSS Dispatches from the Underclass

  • Two-State Delusion: Israel Is A Racist One State Nightmare February 28, 2021
  • Texas Catastrophe Is A Result Of Neoliberal Rot February 19, 2021
  • Discussing the failed impeachment soap opera with Anya Parampil February 17, 2021
  • US Meddles In Ecuador As Region Resists Imperialism w/ Ben Norton February 13, 2021
  • Watch the full episode of Left Bitches with Katie Halper February 12, 2021

RSS Dissent Magazine

  • India’s Muslim Journalists Are Under Attack March 3, 2021
  • Legacies of Cold War Liberalism March 1, 2021
  • The “Make Me Do It” Myth February 26, 2021
  • Future Monetary Theory February 24, 2021

RSS Dissident Voice

  • “Engaging the World”: The “Fascinating Story” of Hamas’s Political Evolution March 3, 2021
  • Delusions of Self-Defense: Biden Bombs Syria March 3, 2021
  • Blood for Oil March 2, 2021
  • Small Acts Can Become A Power No Government Can Suppress March 2, 2021
  • Breaching Digital Rights: India’s Platform and Media Ethics Code March 1, 2021
  • Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point March 1, 2021
  • Coup Leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi Betrayed Democracy in Burma March 1, 2021
  • The Working Class Backbone of Hi Tech February 27, 2021

RSS Do the Math

  • Eclipsed, Lately September 11, 2017

RSS Dollars & Sense Blog

  • For Black History Month: The Economics of the Great Migration February 28, 2021
  • GameStop and the Mechanics of Inverted Totalitarianism February 18, 2021
  • January/February 2021 Issue January 1, 2021
  • Polly Cleveland on Monopoly on The Analysis December 2, 2020
  • Our November/December Issue Is Out! November 16, 2020
  • Helen Lachs Ginsburg, Jobs-for-All Scholar-Activist November 10, 2020

RSS Doug Stanhope

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RSS Douglas Rushkoff

  • Team Human Serialization #37 & 38: The Damage We Do to Ourselves When We Try to Function Like Computers May 29, 2020
  • Team Human Serialization #36: On the Internet of Things, We People Are the Things May 29, 2020
  • Team Human ep. 157: Tyson Yunkaporta “Everything Indigenous is Human” May 27, 2020

RSS Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

  • A Second Holocaust? March 3, 2021
  • Avoid the Pfizer Covid Vaccine March 3, 2021

RSS Dredd Blog

  • If The Straw Man Had A Brain February 27, 2021
  • On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19 - 21 February 16, 2021
  • On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19 - 20 February 9, 2021
  • Will Elections Cure The Disease? - 5 February 5, 2021

RSS Ear to the Ground – Truth Dig

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RSS Early Warning

  • New York Not Close to Exiting Lockdown April 17, 2020
  • Is New York Containing Covid? April 8, 2020
  • New York vs Italy March 23, 2020

RSS Earth First

  • “UNC Dildo-Boy” accosts homophobic preacher, releases anti-technology declaration March 2, 2014
  • Subpoena caps bad week for fossil fuel March 2, 2014
  • Less Than 60 Hours Left to Support Indigenous Land Defenders! February 18, 2014

RSS Earth Observatory: Image of the Day, Natural Hazards, and News

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RSS Earth Observatory: Image of the Day

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RSS Earth Observatory: Natural Hazards

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RSS Earth Policy Institute Blog

  • Data Highlight - Wind Power Beats Nuclear Again in China
  • Data Highlight - Plastic Bag Bans or Fees Cover 49 Million Americans
  • Plan B Update - Fossil Fuel Development in the Arctic is a Bad Investment

RSS Ecocide Alert

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RSS Ecohuman World

  • Our mission November 23, 2016
  • Ecohumanist society and ecology November 23, 2016

RSS Eco-Shock News

  • Radio Ecoshock: Billion Dollar Black Out Climate Disasters March 3, 2021

RSS Ecological Headstand

  • For the Abolition of the Wages System! June 18, 2015
  • The Incredible Shrinking Blog June 9, 2015
  • Keynes "hadn't got round to it" May 25, 2015
  • Napoleon Solow and the Phantom Mechanism May 20, 2015

RSS Ecological Sociology

  • Commons Enabling Infrastucture August 31, 2013
  • A Short History of Progress: Book Review August 26, 2013
  • Foucault, Power, Truth and Ecology August 14, 2013

RSS Ecologise

  • Charles Eisenstein: The Coronation May 16, 2020
  • Visakhapatnam gas leak accident: A preliminary modelling study May 15, 2020
  • The electric car must fail March 30, 2020
  • Economy and ecology are now in conflict; it’s time to integrate them with wisdom March 27, 2020
  • War, mismanagement and climate change: Iraq’s environment on the brink March 20, 2020
  • Big Farms make Big Flu: The deadly connection between industrial farming and pandemics March 17, 2020
  • The Songs of Trees: Stories From Nature’s Great Connectors March 13, 2020
  • Charles Hugh Smith: Could Covid-19 overwhelm us in the months ahead? March 10, 2020
  • Just like the economy, India’s forests too are thriving only on paper March 7, 2020
  • New Zealand’s ‘well-being budget’ and the unnecessary evil of economic growth March 4, 2020

RSS Economic Hardship Reporting Project

  • Here Are the Landmines Utah Renters Need To Look Out for in Lease Agreements March 3, 2021
  • It’s a Myth That Asian-Americans Are Doing Well in the Pandemic March 2, 2021
  • How (Un)compassionate Conservatism Failed Texas March 1, 2021
  • How Did You Sleep Last Night? Darin Mann, Salt Lake City. February 26, 2021
  • Asian American Food Aid Expands To Address Hidden Hunger During Pandemic February 24, 2021
  • ‘I Thought It Was Going To Break Me’: COVID’s Brutal Toll on Working Mothers February 24, 2021

RSS Economic Undertow

  • Repost From 2015: Pied Piper of Dumb Money January 26, 2021
  • The Arc of the Moral Universe January 13, 2021
  • Meet the New Year, Same as the Old Year January 4, 2021

RSS EcoWorldView

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RSS Empire Burlesque

  • On the Acquittal of the Murderous Thug Donald Trump February 13, 2021
  • Impeachment Cave-in: Dems Plumb New Depths of Perfidy February 13, 2021

RSS Empirical Magazine

  • From the Empirical Archives: Genius or Folly? August 30, 2013
  • From the Empirical Archives: Nights Such as These August 29, 2013
  • From the Empirical Archives: Second Time Foster Child August 28, 2013

RSS EmptyWheel

  • The Passport and the Antifa Hunt: The Militia Counter-Stories Emerge
  • Josh Hawley Shocked and Alarmed to Discover the FBI Would Follow the Money behind Right Wing Terrorists
  • Journalists May Be Most at Risk (as Described) from a Presumed January 6 GeoFence Warrant

RSS End of More

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RSS Energy Balance

  • Covid-19, Fracking and the Global Oil Supply. October 29, 2020
  • Solving the Plastic Problem: from Cradle to Grave, to Reincarnation. October 2, 2020
  • What Kind of a World do We Want? (...really?) August 16, 2020
  • Economic Recovery from Covid-19 and Climate Action: Twin Challenges. July 31, 2020
  • Will the Virus Go Away – “Post-Covid”, or Recalibration? July 21, 2020
  • Year 2020: Last Chance to Avoid Rebound into Carbon Chaos. June 23, 2020

RSS Environment & Food Justice

  • National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Statement on the Climate Crisis October 31, 2019
  • La Lucha por La Sierra | Scion of Texas Oil Barons Seeks to Overturn Historic Use Rights to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant August 30, 2018
  • Biopiracy in Mexico | Foundation stealing wild beehives in Yucatán June 14, 2018

RSS Envisionation Blog

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RSS Extraenvironmentalist Blog and Podcasts

  • [ Episode #95 // Economy of Things ] January 28, 2017
  • [ Episode #94 // Rocking the Google Bus ] October 25, 2016
  • [ Episode #93 // Climate Agreements ] September 5, 2016

RSS ExtraEnvironmentalist’s Videos

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RSS ExtraGeographic

  • Brexit, empire and cultural dementia. David Andress demolishes lazy nationalism
    A leave voter at the Save Brexit Rally wants Brexit so that Britain can “get back to being a British Empire”.… Read more The post Brexit, empire and cultural dementia. David Andress demolishes lazy nationalism first appeared on Extra Geographic.
  • Brexit explained in three tweets
    Three recent tweets encapsulate the misinformation, corruption and mess of Brexit Britain. They’re a window into a peculiar time. The UK government’s Department for International Trade (DIT) “helps businesses export, drives inward and outward investment, negotiates market access and trade deals, and champions free trade”.… Read more The post Brexit explained […]
  • Ann Pettifor on Carillion: ‘a grand Ponzi scheme’
    In a recent interview Ann Pettifor, global financial analyst, spoke about the corrupted crony capitalism that led to the collapse of Carillion, a major Government contractor.… Read more The post Ann Pettifor on Carillion: ‘a grand Ponzi scheme’ first appeared on Extra Geographic.
  • James Joyce in summary: escape is a key theme in his work
    Throughout his life James Joyce attempted to escape – from war, religion, convention, narrative structure, language… “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.… Read more The post James Joyce in summary: escape is a key theme in his work first appeared on Extra Geographic.
  • Jeremy Clarkson buys an electric car: an optimistic vision of the UK’s EV future
    A nation’s stories play a large part in its future. Established ideas become conventional wisdom in social institutions. The institutions then draw on this wisdom when enacting public policy.… Read more The post Jeremy Clarkson buys an electric car: an optimistic vision of the UK’s EV future first appeared on Extra Geographic.

RSS Facts for Working People

  • UK budget: coming out of COVID March 3, 2021
  • Thinking of Paddy Cullen: Prisoner of War March 3, 2021
  • Poetry: She Was Beautiful March 2, 2021

RSS Fair: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

  • States Have No Inherent ‘Right to Exist’—but It’s a Media Fixation on Israel/Palestine February 12, 2021
  • Factchecking NPR’s Attempted Takedown of Bernie Sanders February 18, 2020
  • Wired’s Gee-Whiz High-Tech Militarism August 7, 2019

RSS Fairewinds

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RSS Fairfax Climate Watch

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RSS Farooque Chowdhury’s Diary

  • Road rage faces student spirit August 4, 2018
  • Fires within the Arctic Circle July 28, 2018
  • A Facebook post on quota mobilisation July 14, 2018

RSS Feasta

  • Podcast: health, justice and the environment – the core issues February 27, 2021
  • Patrick Noble: a tribute February 27, 2021
  • 2020 Feasta Annual Report February 26, 2021

RSS FireDogLake

  • Dissenter Weekly: Leak Prosecutions Against BLM Protesters, Police Whistleblower In Illinois July 11, 2020
  • US Government Plays Games With Reality Winner’s Life As Coronavirus Outbreak Is Confirmed At Carswell July 8, 2020
  • Beyond Prisons: Historian David Stein Reflects On Ascent Of Abolition July 8, 2020
  • Protest Song Of The Week: ‘All Tomorrow Carry’ By Special Interest July 8, 2020

RSS Fish Out of Water

  • Very Good News about the Polar Vortex Breakdown February 17, 2021
  • Trump began the incitement towards armed insurrection in Wilmington, NC on 9 August 2016 February 10, 2021
  • Trump's ICE/CBP dumped U.S. citizen newborns & moms on Mexican streets February 5, 2021
  • Polar Vortex breaking down now: Major Stratospheric Warming will impact weather all winter December 31, 2020
  • Arecibo Puerto Rico's Huge Radio Telescope Collapses December 1, 2020
  • Hurricane Iota Explodes to Category 5 Will Slam Central America Tonight November 16, 2020

RSS Foreign Confidential

  • Chinese Virologist, MD, PhD, Says Coronavirus Made in Wuhan Lab September 15, 2020
  • Rebels and Spies: the [GREAT] Graphic Novels of Vittorio Giardino July 18, 2020
  • Deep in Red China ... July 6, 2020
  • Preview Video Comic Strip Hero Battles Totalitarian China July 5, 2020

RSS FracTracker

  • Mapping intersectionality: Empowering youth addressing plastics March 3, 2021
  • Pennsylvania’s Waste Disposal Wells – A Tale of Two Datasets February 26, 2021
  • California Oil & Gas Setbacks Recommendations Memo February 23, 2021

RSS George Monbiot (Alternet)

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RSS George Monbiot (Official Home Page)

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RSS Get Real List: Chris Nelder

  • My new gig December 5, 2015
  • Announcing the Energy Transition Show October 14, 2015
  • Guest appearance on The Energy Gang podcast May 14, 2015

RSS Gil Smart

  • With Gil Smart on guns, the NRA January 19, 2015
  • Gil Smart right on development February 8, 2015
  • Gil Smart makes sense May 19, 2014
  • Right on, Gil Smart February 17, 2014

RSS Glen Ford – Black Agenda Report

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RSS Global Guerrillas

  • The Long Night is Coming January 4, 2019
  • Disruption, Drones, and Big Airports December 20, 2018

RSS Global Occupy News

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RSS Global Oneness Project

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RSS Global Research

  • Selected Articles: C.Y.A. and “Fraudulent Marketing”: The Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine is an “Unapproved Product” March 3, 2021
  • C.Y.A. and “Fraudulent Marketing”: The Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine is an “Unapproved Product” which is “Permitted for Use” March 3, 2021
  • Video: Armenia Lost the War against Azerbaijan. Calls for Resignation of PM Pashinyan March 3, 2021

RSS Global Research CA

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RSS Gonzalo Lira

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RSS Green is the New Red

  • Trump Supporter Promises Legislation to Label Protest as “Economic Terrorism” November 22, 2016
  • Violence against environmentalists is now at an all-time high July 8, 2016
  • “To Build a Fire”: New Split EP With “Old Lines” and Will Potter June 13, 2016
  • “It changes who you are—forever. What you do with that change is what defines who you are.” April 28, 2016
  • Exclusive: New Virtual Reality Investigation Goes Inside Factory Farms April 13, 2016
  • New Sticker — Animal Rights Activists Must “Join or Die” February 22, 2016
  • “Truth and Power” TV series features Will Potter on “eco-terrorism,” ag-gag laws, and investigative journalism February 15, 2016
  • This woman rowed straight into a hurricane. And you should too. February 11, 2016
  • 6 Lessons From How the FBI and Media Treat Militia Groups January 12, 2016
  • Here’s How One Activist Convinced the FBI to Leave Him Alone December 7, 2015

RSS Green on Huffington Post

  • The World Finally Started Cutting Climate Pollution. Now It Needs To Multiply That By 10. March 3, 2021
  • Susan Collins Will Vote For Interior Secretary Nominee Deb Haaland March 3, 2021
  • U.N. Human Rights Experts Say Environmental Racism In Louisiana’s Cancer Alley Must End March 2, 2021
  • Weekslong Water Crisis Continues In Mississippi, Hitting Black Residents Hardest March 2, 2021
  • Biden Administration Wades Into Major Fight Over Green Building Codes March 1, 2021
  • Manatee Deaths Are Spiking In Florida February 27, 2021
  • Monarch Butterfly Population In Mexico Drops By More Than A Quarter February 27, 2021
  • Hundreds Of Cows Have Been Trapped At Sea In 'Hellish' Conditions For 2 Months February 27, 2021

RSS Greenpeace Blogs

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RSS Greg Palast

  • Texas Gets Lay’d: How the Bush Family turned off the lights February 20, 2021
  • Squash The Vote: The GOP Plan to Thwart DemocracyPalast on the Bill Press Pod February 16, 2021

RSS Gregor Macdonald

  • Oil Fall December 31, 2018

RSS Grinning Planet

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RSS Grist

  • Are nutritional supplements the best choice for people, their pets, and the planet? March 3, 2021
  • Mississippi lifts COVID restrictions while thousands of residents can’t wash their hands March 3, 2021
  • As coal dies, the US has no plan to help the communities left behind March 3, 2021
  • ‘Climate Neutral’ products are now a thing. What’s behind the label? March 3, 2021

RSS Growth Busters

  • Finding Common Ground (podcast episode 53) February 4, 2021
  • Shrinking Your Travel Footprint (podcast episode 52) December 28, 2020
  • Philosophy of Shrinking Footprints (podcast episode 51) December 26, 2020
  • Taking a Vacation from Carbon Emissions (podcast episode 50) October 27, 2020

RSS Guernica Mag

  • Hamilton’s Familiar Sound March 3, 2021
  • Men I Hate: The Stasi Men March 2, 2021
  • Chaos Theory March 1, 2021
  • The Idiots February 26, 2021

RSS Guy McPherson’s Blog

  • Science Update: Backtracking on Geoengineering? March 3, 2021
  • How We Live, How We Die: Short Video March 2, 2021

RSS Health After Oil

  • Public Health’s Response to Decline: Loyalty to the 1% December 15, 2014

RSS Hot Topic: Global Warming and the Future of New Zealand

  • Postcards from La La Land #132: time warps and twaddle June 7, 2018
  • The final cut: crank paper on NZ temperature record gets its rebuttal – warming continues unabated May 2, 2018
  • Anthropogenic climate change is real: pithy post-punk anthem for the Trump generation December 9, 2017

RSS How to Save the World

  • Reminder March 1, 2021
  • We Are Our Story February 24, 2021
  • Has Our Diet, and Too Many Antibiotics, Made Us More Vulnerable? February 23, 2021

RSS I am Not a Number

  • The civil war in the LP was NEVER about antisemitism. November 20, 2020
  • English patriotism and the left – a political conundrum October 3, 2020
  • The new Reclaim Party and the ‘culture wars’ – the incoherence of our two party system and the failure of liberalism October 3, 2020

RSS I Cite

  • "Feudalism Lives on in the Delta" -- Ray Sprigle August 17, 2020
  • Critical Theory and Climate Change 2 April 2, 2020
  • Critical Theory and Climate Change 1 March 23, 2020
  • Untitled July 18, 2019
  • America's obsession with rooting out communism is making a comeback September 25, 2018

RSS Iamronen

  • Farewell Milford Graves February 14, 2021
  • Yoga Practice – Winter 2020/21 December 29, 2020
  • I Shakuhachi – December 25, 2020: Love’s Impurities December 25, 2020
  • I Shakuhachi – December 23, 2020: Slow Reach December 23, 2020
  • Mixing Paint December 21, 2020

RSS Ian Welsh

  • Our Society, The Slave Factory March 2, 2021

RSS Idea Explorer

  • Habitat Loss November 9, 2020
  • Marginal Hope August 24, 2020
  • A Pandemic-Altered Future April 15, 2020
  • Bridging the Future March 31, 2020
  • Drop Ratios February 5, 2020

RSS Idea Explorer – Big Pic Explorer

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RSS Idea Explorer: Land of Conscience

  • Responsible Survival January 1, 2020
  • Every Day December 23, 2019
  • Memories of Value July 23, 2019

RSS If You Love This Planet – Helen Caldicott

  • Steven Starr, Bruce Gagnon and William Hartung at the Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction symposium April 18, 2017
  • Dr. Helen Caldicott, Ted Postol, Max Tegmark and Alan Robock at The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction symposium June 23, 2016
  • Dr. Caldicott’s October 2014 speech: The Ukraine Crisis, Is Nuclear Conflict Likely? February 17, 2015
  • Dr. Helen Caldicott interviewed by Bob Herbert about her latest book, “Loving This Planet” December 28, 2012

RSS Indybay Features

  • Call for US to End Support of Saudi-Led War
  • Tenants and Advocates Block Eviction Hearings in Santa Clara County
  • Vacaville Police Target Mutual Aid Event, Arrest and Assault Activists
  • People's Park in Berkeley Faces Greatest Danger Yet

RSS Indybay Newswire

  • Spring 2021 National Immigrant Solidarity Network News Alert!
  • Does Corona policy threaten our fundamental rights? Scientist warns of "creeping process"
  • End Sanctions on the "Troika of Tyranny", and Learn from the World
  • Remembrance culture and the Cold War
  • San Francisco Bay Area school districts push to reopen schools

RSS Information Clearing House

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RSS Inside Left – The OFFICIAL Anti-Olympics Blog™

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RSS Institute for Public Accuracy

  • Thirty Years of Bombing Iraq March 3, 2021
  • Withdrawal of Tanden Nomination March 3, 2021
  • Tax Billionaires to Pay for Pandemic Recovery March 2, 2021
  • Biden Bombing Syria: “Illegal” February 26, 2021
  • Mars Mission Had 1-in-960 Odds of a Plutonium Release February 26, 2021
  • New Report Calls on Biden to Put an End to Program That’s “Not Far From Slavery” February 25, 2021

RSS International Debt Observatory

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RSS io9

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RSS iWatch: Global Muckraking

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RSS Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer Blog

  • Five Things We Need to Know About the “Fiscal Cliff” December 10, 2012
  • Wasteful Pentagon Spending and Costly Wars Hurting Minnesota Communities November 6, 2012

RSS Jacobin

  • Labour MP Jon Trickett: “A Divided Movement Will Not Win the Next Election” March 3, 2021
  • How Bernie Sanders, an Open Socialist, Won Burlington’s Mayoral Election March 3, 2021
  • Oren Cass Is Insisting That Starving Some Kids Is Important for Society March 3, 2021
  • Bernie Is Right: We Shouldn’t Let the Senate Parliamentarian Block a $15 Minimum Wage March 3, 2021
  • The Tide of Feminist Organizing Is Rising in Chile March 3, 2021
  • Placing the Proud Boys on Canada’s Terrorism List Is a Threat to the Left March 3, 2021

RSS Jeremy Scahill

  • Biden Should End Espionage Act Prosecutions of Whistleblowers and Journalists January 21, 2021

RSS Jill Stein

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RSS Joe Bageant

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RSS John Cook Video Uploads

  • Climate misinformation: Will Happer on CO2 being plant food January 24, 2021
  • Climate misinformation: David Legates & Willie Soon on CO2 lag January 24, 2021
  • Climate misinformation: Marco Rubio on past climate change January 24, 2021
  • Climate misinformation: Rick Perry compares climate denial to Galileo January 24, 2021

RSS John Hively

  • President Joe Biden and the False Promises of Immigration Reform and Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 February 20, 2021
  • The Billionaires Have Programmed Too Many of Us Into Opposing Teams February 13, 2021

RSS John Pilger

  • THE MOST LETHAL VIRUS IS NOT COVID. IT IS WAR.

RSS John Perkins

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RSS John W. Whitehead

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RSS John Zerzan: Anarchy Radio

  • Anarchy Radio 03 02 2021 March 3, 2021
  • Anarchy Radio 02 23 2021 February 23, 2021
  • Anarchy Radio 02 16 2021 February 16, 2021

RSS Jonathan Turley

  • A Golden Calf Lawsuit? Controversy Erupts Over Doctored Photo of Republicans Praying At Trump Statue March 3, 2021
  • Boston Suspends Advanced and Gifted Programs Over “Equity” Concerns March 2, 2021
  • Sweden Moves To Protect Academic Freedom After Professor Quits Covid Research Due To Harassment March 2, 2021
  • Philosophy Professor Faces Calls For His Firing After He Attended Trump Rally March 1, 2021

RSS Karl Grossman

  • I've switched from this site to my website -- www.karlgrossman.com -- for my blog. November 29, 2015
  • The End of Police Raids -- at Long Last -- on Gays of Fire Island July 1, 2015
  • "Fire Island Was Paradise,Truly Paradise" June 21, 2015
  • My First Big Story June 1, 2015
  • Disaster Waiting to Happen at Indian Point May 12, 2015

RSS Karl North Eco-Intelligence

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RSS Kate Ausburn

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RSS Keith Farnish

  • Uprooting Civilization (Part 2) May 7, 2014
  • Uprooting Civilization (Part 1) February 21, 2014
  • The Problem With…Conspiracy Theories January 7, 2014

RSS Knight Science Journalism – MIT

  • The Tracker Now Lives Here … November 1, 2015
  • A farewell post: Three reasons why good science writing is worth defending. January 6, 2015
  • Globe story on non-invasive prenatal testing offers murky argument. December 31, 2014
  • (UPDATED/2*) What Ho? A 2014 List of Lists of best, worst, or otherwisest in 2014 December 30, 2014
  • Cancer & poverty: When a reporter’s journey becomes part of the story. December 23, 2014

RSS Kulture Critic

  • A New World Apocalyptic Eschatology February 13, 2021

RSS Kunstler Cast

  • John B. McLemore Email to JHK: Huffing gas fumes in shittown alabama June 1, 2017
  • Release: S-Town Podcast Prequel: KunstlerCast Ready for Binge Listening May 31, 2017
  • KunstlerCast: S-Town May 31, 2017
  • James Howard Kunstler on John B. McLemore of S-Town May 31, 2017
  • Transcript: KunstlerCast: S-Town May 31, 2017

RSS Kurt Kobb

  • Declining sperm counts: Nature's answer to overpopulation? February 28, 2021

RSS Lack of Environment

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RSS Law and Disorder

  • Law and Disorder March 1, 2021 March 1, 2021
  • Law and Disorder February 22, 2021 February 22, 2021
  • Law and Disorder February 15, 2021 February 15, 2021

RSS Le Monde diplomatique – English edition

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RSS Le Monde diplomatique – Open Page

  • In Iraq, breaking up is hard to do March 3, 2021
  • The UAE's seven emirates March 2, 2021
  • Sahel: shifting enemies, enduring conflict March 2, 2021
  • How much of a threat is Alexey Navalny? March 2, 2021
  • Myanmar's military coup March 2, 2021

RSS Leaving Babylon

  • Even Iran is laughing at us November 9, 2020

RSS Lee Camp

  • Gov’t Secrets #30 – Breaking News on The Assassinations of Malcolm X and Fred Hampton March 4, 2021
  • We’re Weaponizing Outer Space – Which Is A Terrible Idea (Redacted Tonight) March 3, 2021
  • MOC #55 – Facing Prison For Fighting Injustice (w/ Lillian House) March 3, 2021
  • MOC #54 – Big Oil Is Really Scared! with Steven Donziger March 1, 2021
  • Redacted Tonight #324 – Corporate America Has Weaponized Being ‘Woke’ February 27, 2021
  • MOC #53 – The TRUTH About China (w/ Danny Haiphong) February 26, 2021

RSS Lee Fang

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RSS Leonardo Boff

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RSS Les Leopold

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RSS Life Itself

  • 2020, the Year the US Imploded, so Where is Hope? December 27, 2020
  • The best and worst of my US of A July 4, 2020
  • The little virus that could is not done with us, is it? May 29, 2020

RSS Limited, Inc.

  • Balloons March 3, 2021
  • Yawn February 26, 2021
  • A PLEA FOR AN EXISTENTIAL ETHICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT February 23, 2021

RSS Link TV – Earth Focus

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RSS Low-Tech Magazine

  • How Sustainable is High-tech Health Care? February 18, 2021
  • Vertical Farming Does Not Save Space February 17, 2021

RSS LRB Blog

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RSS Luis J. Rodriguez

  • Stand Firm on Election Day November 3, 2020
  • 50th Anniversary of Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War August 31, 2020
  • Trump's War on the United States July 24, 2020

RSS Mabinogogiblog

  • Zoom Meeting on the Melbourne Isolation Hood to stop spread of Covid in Hospital January 16, 2021
  • We Can Cut the Number of Hospital Acquired Covid Infections January 1, 2021
  • JCVI has not thought through their vaccine prioritisation December 4, 2020
  • The Changing of the Shared Narrative December 3, 2020

RSS Manicore – Accueil

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RSS Marginal Revolution

  • Sins of omission vs sins of commission March 3, 2021
  • Wednesday assorted links March 3, 2021
  • Why Didn’t Congress Fund Operation Warp Speed!? March 3, 2021

RSS Mark Biskeborn – Underground Essays

  • Kafkaesque November 11, 2014
  • Larry Summers Still Living Large April 9, 2013
  • War and Corruption Deficits: Insects and Leviathans January 21, 2013
  • Breaking News: Lt. Col. Shaffer Accuses Former CIA Dir. Tenet December 29, 2012

RSS Mark Fiore

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RSS Mark Lynas

  • Saved by the pandemic? June 30, 2020
  • New book – ‘Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency’ June 30, 2020
  • ‘The single most important goal of the candidates’ climate plan’ – CNN.com September 6, 2019
  • The planet is being consumed by humans – CNN.com August 8, 2019
  • UK and Trump miles apart on climate change – CNN.com June 3, 2019

RSS Martin Wolf

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RSS Matt Bruenig

  • Trump NLRB Smashed Google Guy February 17, 2018
  • Neoliberals Used to Refer to Themselves as New Democrats December 22, 2017
  • Alabama Part II December 16, 2017

RSS Matt Taibbi

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RSS Matt Wuerker

  • Cartoon: Freedom of speech is absolute, but... April 30, 2015
  • Cartoon: Clinton Inc April 23, 2015
  • Cartoon: Reince's Women Issues April 16, 2015
  • Cartoon: The way to win April 9, 2015
  • No Cake for you! April 2, 2015

RSS Max Keiser

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RSS Media Lens

  • 20 Years Of Media Lens: A Selection Of Remarkable Replies From Journalists February 23, 2021
  • ‘Our Indifference To Ourselves’ – Beyond The ‘Virtue’ Of Self-Sacrifice – Part 2 February 11, 2021
  • ‘Our Indifference To Ourselves’ – Beyond The ‘Virtue’ Of Self-Sacrifice – Part 1 February 10, 2021

RSS Media Matters – Environment

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RSS Media Matters – Everything

  • Fox guest on possible troop withdrawal from Afghanistan: "The solution is more blood, sweat, and tears" 
  • Fox host defends Trump: "Just because you use harsh language doesn't mean your intent is to denigrate another race"
  • Fox News is talking more about abortion than the Democratic debates did

RSS Media Roots

  • Media Roots Radio: The Oswald Institute of Virology, COVID-19 Origins & US Military Biowarfare w/ gumby4christ February 26, 2021
  • Empire Files: Truth Behind SNL’s Controversial Israel Joke February 22, 2021
  • Empire Files: Haiti’s Century of US Coups, Invasions & Puppets February 21, 2021

RSS Methane Hydrates

  • Joint New Zealand - German 3D survey reveals massive seabed gas hydrate and methane system May 12, 2014
  • Noctilucent clouds: further confirmation of large methane releases December 10, 2013
  • Earthquake M6.7 hits Sea of Okhotsk October 2, 2013

RSS Michael Hudson

  • The Democrats Role in Distracting with Identity Politics February 22, 2021
  • At the Oxford Economics Society February 4, 2021
  • The rentier resurgence and takeover: Finance Capitalism vs. Industrial Capitalism January 27, 2021

RSS Michael Miller – Viewpoint

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RSS Michael Parenti

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RSS Mike Philbin – Free Planet

  • LAST OF THE CATHEDRA available in trade paperback from Amazon. October 24, 2020
  • OUR ELECTRIC MOON October 21, 2019
  • Best Real-time in-game Physics engine EVER by Dennis Gustafsson September 13, 2019

RSS Mondoweiss

  • ICC launch of investigation of Israeli war crimes enrages AIPAC and Netanyahu — ‘undiluted antisemitism’ March 3, 2021
  • ‘NY Times’ erases Jewish Americans’ support for Israeli settlements March 3, 2021

RSS Mons Angelorum: Deadly Serious 3

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RSS Mons Angelorum: Waiting for Good Weather

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RSS Mother Jones

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RSS MR Zine

  • Yoshie Furuhashi, "After MRZine" January 1, 2017
  • Louis Allday, "Controlling the Narrative on Syria" December 14, 2016
  • Marta Harnecker, "Fidel, Today and Forever" December 11, 2016
  • Prabhat Patnaik, "Developing 'Infrastructure'" December 9, 2016
  • Susie Day, "Forward Ever, Normal Never: Taking Down Donald Trump" December 6, 2016
  • Samir Amin, "The Election of Donald Trump" December 1, 2016

RSS Musings on Iraq

  • Iraq’s Oil Revenues Hit 13-Month High In February 2021 March 3, 2021
  • This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 3 March 3, 2021
  • Security In Iraq, Feb 22-28, 2021 March 2, 2021

RSS Nafeez Ahmed

  • IDF's Gaza assault is to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis | Nafeez Ahmed July 9, 2014
  • World Bank and UN carbon offset scheme 'complicit' in genocidal land grabs - NGOs | Nafeez Ahmed July 3, 2014
  • The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex CIA spy | Nafeez Ahmed June 19, 2014
  • Iraq blowback: Isis rise manufactured by insatiable oil addiction June 16, 2014

RSS Naked Capitalism

  • 2:00PM Water Cooler 3/3/2021 March 3, 2021
  • How the NATO Alliance Is Fighting Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine With Subsidies From State Budgets and the Gates Foundation, Hidden by bhe Financial Times March 3, 2021
  • Links 3/3/2021 March 3, 2021
  • The Bullshit Economy: Homebuying “Help” March 3, 2021
  • Department of Pre-Crime: Left-Wing Protester Arrested by FBI for Being on a “Path to Radicalization” March 3, 2021

RSS Naomi Klein

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RSS Naomi Klein – Guardian.UK

  • We were told Joe Biden was the 'safe choice'. But it was risky to offer so little | Naomi Klein November 8, 2020
  • Covid-19 spreads to every African country - as it happened May 13, 2020

RSS Nature Protects, As She is Protected

  • No Name Calling Please, Give Us Evidence Which Proves GM Crops Are Safe March 30, 2017
  • Let’s Be Honest About Genetically Modified Crops March 9, 2017

RSS Navdanya’s Diary

  • Rewilding food, rewilding farming January 25, 2020
  • Which future of food do we want? November 24, 2019
  • Vandana Shiva : No to Junk Food in Schools, Yes to Climate Change Education in Schools November 12, 2019

RSS New Internationalist

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RSS New Left Project

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RSS New World Notes

  • Naomi Klein on CIA Project MK-ULTRA February 28, 2021
  • John Pilger February 21, 2021
  • Where Does The Left Go After Trump? February 6, 2021

RSS News Junkie Post

  • Capitol Riots: The Day of Infamy When Populism Became Fascism January 12, 2021
  • The Three Farm Laws: Not Only a Fight of Farmers for Themselves but Also for India’s Food Security December 17, 2020
  • COVID-19 Behavior Policing: Rehearsal for Crackdown on Dissent Ahead of Climate Collapse? December 4, 2020
  • Slavery of Fear July 28, 2020
  • COVID-19: Confirmed Wuhan Man-Made Coronavirus Chimera Enters Vaccine Design July 8, 2020
  • COVID-19 Cold War: Will the Second Wave Come from Vaccine Trials? June 16, 2020

RSS NOAA: Monthly State of the Climate Report

  • January 2021 National Climate Report

RSS Notes from the Aboveground

  • On Inequality July 27, 2015
  • Shameless is as shameless does July 21, 2015

RSS NYT Examiner

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RSS Occupy.com

  • Green New Deal IX: Learning Lessons about Equality and Education from Finland February 19, 2021
  • Post-Brexit Scrapping of Erasmus Student Exchange Harms Economy and Undermines UK Relations with Europe February 17, 2021
  • Sedition caucus mimics Trump’s worst sin: Demolition of content—legal, moral, democratic or electoral January 14, 2021
  • Tell Congress to #StopLine3 January 12, 2021
  • UK’s 5-day Hiatus from Christmas Lockdown May Pave the Way for Ill-Fated New Year for Britain's Poorest January 10, 2021
  • The worst president January 9, 2021
  • Green New Deal, Part VIII: New Zealand’s Zero-Covid-19 Strategy Shows how Politics Can Serve the Common Good January 7, 2021
  • Finding a Home for the ‘Politically Homeless’: Could a UK Version of Spain’s Podemos Party Work In Britain? December 11, 2020

RSS Occupy las Vegas

  • TONNELLATA gratuita per fondersi con Dune Network in un accordo di M&A decentralizzato February 3, 2021
  • Bitcoin s’élève à 1 700 $ en 48 heures : Plus de 19 000 dollars pour une capitalisation boursière de 20 milliards de dollars (Market Watch) January 25, 2021
  • Crypto-kriminalitet falder, men Bitcoin-ransomware steg i 2020! January 20, 2021

RSS Occupy Wall Street

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RSS Oddity Central

  • Company Sells Bottled Fresh Air for Over $100 a Bottle March 3, 2021
  • Hard to Swallow – Japanese Student Creates Delicious-Looking Stone Sushi March 3, 2021
  • Man Spends $15,500 on “Love Island” to Win Back Ex-Girlfriend, Gets Shot Down March 3, 2021
  • These Two Islands Are Just 2.4 Miles Apart, But Have a 21-Hour Time Difference March 2, 2021
  • Teen Turns 11-Years-Worth of Eraser Shavings Into Giant Ball March 2, 2021
  • The Gunthers – The Incredible Story of the World’s Richest Dog Dynasty March 2, 2021

RSS Of Two Minds

  • When Does This Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham Finally Implode? March 3, 2021
  • About That +6.8% GDP Forecast: Remember That GDP = Waste March 2, 2021
  • What "Normal" Are We Returning To? The Depression Nobody Dares Acknowledge March 1, 2021

RSS One Penny Sheet

  • Easy Ways for Disabled Entrepreneurs to Find Financing May 13, 2020
  • Can You Take Out A Personal Loan And Use It For Your Business? May 13, 2020

RSS One Struggle – South Florida

  • Florida Must Resist Becoming A Testing Ground For State Repression! February 8, 2021
  • Teachers Resist! Lessons in Solidarity from Haiti November 13, 2020
  • WTF Is Still Happening? What isn’t Progressive: the Biden/Harris Capitalist Alternative November 7, 2020
  • WTF Is Still Happening? The Supreme Court is Still Capitalist October 29, 2020

RSS Orion Magazine

  • VIDEO: Dr. Imo Nse Imeh, Artist in Motion February 16, 2021
  • Five Articles to Celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science February 11, 2021
  • Editor’s Choice: “This Land Was Made” February 9, 2021

RSS Our Finite World

  • Why Collapse Occurs; Why It May Not Be Far Away February 25, 2021
  • Where Energy Modeling Goes Wrong February 4, 2021
  • 2021: More troubles likely January 12, 2021

RSS Pando Daily

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RSS Paul Haeder

  • American Exceptionalism: Private Wealth and Public Squalor February 23, 2021
  • The Eye of the Wolf: Measuring Myself through Death February 19, 2021
  • Dreams Outside the Hopes of the Neuronormal February 6, 2021

RSS Paul Kingsnorth – Elswhere

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RSS Paul L. Street

  • Petit-Bourgeois “Normalcy” Pining at The New York Times February 15, 2021
  • On Capitalism, Racism, Trump, and Pandemo-Fascism February 15, 2021
  • We Have a Fascism Problem February 15, 2021
  • Simon Says February 14, 2021

RSS PBD – Progressive Blog Digest

  • 46 January 21, 2021
  • HIS LEGACY January 20, 2021
  • THE END GAME January 19, 2021

RSS PeakOil.com News

  • Everything Is About To Get More Expensive. This Is Good March 3, 2021
  • Why Collapse Occurs; Why It May Not Be Far Away February 28, 2021
  • Don’t Believe the US Energy Independence Hype February 28, 2021

RSS Peak Prosperity Blog

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RSS Peak Prosperity: Daily Digest

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RSS Peak Prosperity: Featured Voices

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RSS People Before Profit Blog

  • "Blacklisted Again" Michael Berkowitz on "Trumbo" by Norman Markowitz December 10, 2015
  • A Corrected and Updated Version of The "Madness" of Donald Trump by Norman Markowitz December 9, 2015
  • The "Madness" of Donald Trump by Norman Markowitz December 8, 2015

RSS Phlegm

  • "we fight each other while it devours us" Belgium June 2017 December 1, 2017
  • West Didsbury Manchester. May 2017 December 1, 2017
  • Dulwich picture gallery. April 25th 2017 December 1, 2017

RSS Phyllis Bennis

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RSS Physicist-Retired Newsvine

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RSS Pink Tank

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RSS PlanetSave – Climate

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RSS Political Violence @ a Glance

  • The Anatomy of Backsliding: Why is Democracy Consuming Itself? March 3, 2021
  • You Can’t Get There from Here: Biden Negotiating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict March 2, 2021
  • Digitally Fueled Civil Resistance and Repression in Myanmar March 1, 2021

RSS Popular Resistance

  • Joe Biden Is Following A Blueprint for Forever War March 3, 2021
  • Coup-Supporting Academics Spread Lies To Censor The Grayzone March 3, 2021
  • Coup Leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi Betrayed Democracy In Burma March 3, 2021
  • Against Big Tech’s Algorithmic Cancel Culture March 3, 2021

RSS PRN with Danny Schechter

  • The Gary Null Show – 08.15.16 August 15, 2016
  • Leid Stories – Election 2016: Primaries Deliver A Big Payday for Clinton, An Inevitable Payout for Sanders – 06.08.16 June 8, 2016
  • The Gary Null Show – 05.10.16 May 10, 2016
  • Meditations and Molotovs – 05.02.16 May 2, 2016
  • Focus on the Facts – 02.29.16 February 29, 2016
  • Warrior Connection – 02.28.16 February 29, 2016
  • Resistance Radio – Darcia Narvaez – 02.28.16 February 29, 2016
  • Meria Heller Show – 02.28.16 February 28, 2016
  • Expat Files – 02.28.16 February 28, 2016

RSS Progressive Radio Network

  • The Gary Null Show – 03.03.21 March 3, 2021
  • Leid Sotries – 03.03.21 March 3, 2021
  • The War on ‘Misinformation’ Claims Two Victims. Truth. And the Right to Treatment. March 3, 2021
  • The Gary Null Show Notes – 03.03.21 March 3, 2021
  • It’s All About Food – Dan Pucci and Craig Cavallo, AMERICAN CIDER: A Modern Guide to a Historic Beverage March 3, 2021
  • Nature Bats Last – 03.03.21 March 3, 2021

RSS ProPublica

  • After a Wave of Violent Threats Against Election Workers, Georgia Sees Few Arrests March 3, 2021
  • Hours After an Employee Accused Him of Sexual Misconduct, Prominent Alaska Executive Resigns March 3, 2021
  • A Las Vegas Judge Approves $1.4 Million Payment to Wrongfully Convicted Man Who Served More Than Two Decades March 2, 2021
  • Oregon’s Logging Industry Says It Can’t Afford New Taxes. But Prices Have Never Been Higher and Profits Are Soaring. March 2, 2021
  • ProPublica Wins 19 Awards in Society for News Design Competition March 1, 2021

RSS Project Censored

  • Luminaries Join Peace Studies Class for Tribute to Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg March 3, 2021
  • John K. Wilson and Abby Martin March 1, 2021
  • Scholar John K. Wilson February 17, 2021

RSS Public Intelligence

  • (U//FOUO) Maryland Fusion Center Bulletin: Islamic State Propaganda Video Encourages Incendiary Attacks in the Homeland
  • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Report: Protecting Against the Threat of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)
  • (U//FOUO) DHS-FBI-USSS Joint Threat Assessment: 59th Presidential Inauguration
  • (U//FOUO) Domestic Violent Extremists Emboldened in Aftermath of Capitol Breach, Domestic Terrorism Threat Likely Amid Political Transitions
  • Operation Warp Speed Therapeutics: Monoclonal Antibody Playbook Version 2.0
  • Asymmetric Warfare Group Study: Russian Private Military Companies in Operations, Competition, and Conflict
  • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Mail-In Voting in 2020 Infrastructure Risk Assessment
  • (U//FOUO) DHS Bulletin: Russia Likely to Continue Seeking to Undermine Faith in US Electoral Process
  • (U//FOUO) DHS Bulletin: Some Violent Opportunists Probably Engaging in Organized Activities
  • (U//FOUO) DHS Bulletin: Violent Opportunist Tactics Observed During Civil Disturbances 26-31 May

RSS Pulse

  • “Undignified”, “humiliating”, “belittled”—BAME experience at the BBC June 13, 2020
  • How Disinformation Works April 2, 2020
  • Satis House: On a Women’s Revolution January 7, 2020
  • Bosnia, Kosovo, Syria: Western Inaction and Radicalisation December 1, 2019

RSS Quartz

  • Molotov cocktails March 3, 2021
  • The oil market’s wild pandemic ride is about to take another turn March 3, 2021
  • Live sports betting is coming to your TV screen March 3, 2021
  • How Walmart, Target, and Etsy compete online with Amazon March 3, 2021
  • Rooftop solar could kill—or save—the Texas electric grid March 3, 2021
  • Why UK finance minister Rishi Sunak put a “super-deduction” in his budget March 3, 2021
  • These are America’s 10 most overpaid CEOs March 3, 2021
  • The pesky pandemic wall March 3, 2021
  • Vaccines for all, canceling student debt, Egyptian pet cemetery March 3, 2021
  • India’s restaurants and hotels are not giving online aggregators enough credit March 3, 2021

RSS Question Everything

  • Starting a New Blog: Rethinking Everything December 31, 2020
  • Merry Winter Solstice 2020 December 21, 2020
  • Autumnal Equinox Greetings September 22, 2020

RSS R-Squared Energy

  • Notice: New R-Squared Is rrapier.com June 3, 2017
  • Contact Information And Blog Migration Update May 19, 2017
  • Guest Post: Offshore Wind Power Cost Update April 20, 2017
  • The Peak Oil Estimate You Won’t Believe: A Tale Of Two Sigmoids March 28, 2017

RSS Rabett Run

  • Banning new gas stations March 3, 2021
  • Libel lawsuits and the truth in the Post-Trump era February 6, 2021
  • Just putting this here January 21, 2021

RSS Rabble.Ca

  • Learning from the pandemic to make meaningful change March 3, 2021
  • Archiving workers' pandemic experiences for future historians March 2, 2021
  • Bob Gallagher in conversation about his work on LGBTQ rights March 1, 2021
  • Canada declares Chinese persecution of Uyghurs a genocide February 26, 2021

RSS Radical Philosophy

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RSS Ran Prieur

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RSS Random Communications from an Evolutionary Edge

  • Universal Intelligence February 21, 2021
  • Intercentricity (Part 2b): Examples – From pluralism and education to power and democracy February 1, 2021

RSS RANTINGS ON MARKETS, ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS STRATEGY

  • What Really Happened With Texas Energy Grid? February 19, 2021
  • Cancel Culture And Censorship Are As American As Apple Pie February 9, 2021
  • Robinhood Traders And A Quick Reality Check That Is The Disastrous, Unsustainable, Fragile US Financial System And Humpty Dumpty Economy January 28, 2021

RSS Read the Science

  • IPCC Discovers Infographics – Communicates Climate Change April 11, 2014
  • Show me the Money: Adaptation Finance February 18, 2014
  • The Coffee Grower’s Paradox January 24, 2014
  • Stinking Hot Down Under January 17, 2014
  • Send in the Clouds January 10, 2014

RSS Reader Supported News

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RSS Real Economics

  • Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 28, 2021 February 28, 2021
  • Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 21, 2021 February 21, 2021
  • Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 14, 2021 February 14, 2021

RSS Real-World Economics Review Blog

  • Neoclassical economics II: pseudo-scholarship March 4, 2021
  • The ideological function of economic theories and models March 3, 2021
  • Keynes on models and economics March 3, 2021

RSS Red Pepper

  • Sudan: the second wave of revolt March 3, 2021
  • Why planning is political February 23, 2021
  • Review – Tracksuits, Traumas and Class Traitors February 21, 2021
  • Review – Bank Job February 20, 2021
  • Beyond leek-flavoured UKism February 15, 2021

RSS Reddit: Environment

  • Maps Show How Dramatically Fertilizer is Choking the Great Lakes: The Great Lakes are turning into giant “dead zones” like the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. If we don’t change the way we grow food, we will destroy 1/5 of the world’s fresh surface water and all the fish in it.
  • Australia confirms extinction of 13 more species, including first reptile since colonisation
  • Planting trees helps fight climate change but we need billions more seedlings
  • Electric Car Batteries Need Far Less Raw Material Than Fossil-Fuel Cars
  • Illegal deforestation is ravaging the planet and driving emissions up. A new bill in Congress seeks to change that.
  • 100% renewable energy could power the world by 2030, experts say

RSS Reddit: Overpopulation – Unending Growth

  • I hate stories like this -- Father with 26 children by 15 women has ‘received £500,000 in benefits’
  • re-posted from r/lostgeneration, an (un)expected small step to the overpopulation crisis
  • The child is talking behind this subreddit.
  • Carrying Capacity and Human Population | Overpopulation Time Bomb
  • Why Thomas Malthus Is Still Wrong | Scientific American (2016)

RSS Republic of Lakotah – Mitakuye Oyasin

  • DENVER CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF RUSSELL MEANS October 19, 2013
  • PEARL MEANS September 8, 2013
  • CONVERSATION WITH LOURDES July 24, 2013

RSS Resilience.org

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RSS Richard Heinberg

  • Museletter #336: Capitalism, the Doomsday Machine (or, How to Repurpose Growth Capital) February 26, 2021
  • Will Technology Solve Climate Change? February 26, 2021

RSS Robert Koehler

  • Taking War Personally March 3, 2021

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RSS Robert Scheer

  • Imagining A New World on the Other Side of the Pandemic March 20, 2020

RSS Robert Scribbler

  • Faith in Climate Action — The Church’s Response to Hothouse Earth July 8, 2020
  • A Possible Vaccine, But When? May 18, 2020
  • Social Distancing and Waiting Until It’s Safe Enough to Re-open April 30, 2020

RSS Rogue Columnist

  • Degrading by degrees March 1, 2021
  • The new pintos February 16, 2021
  • Mac February 9, 2021
  • Supersized February 2, 2021
  • Prepare for disappointment January 26, 2021

RSS RollingStone: Politics

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RSS RT: Documentary

  • Free to be yourself. Surf master & disabled pupil inspire each other (Trailer) Premiere 02/23 February 20, 2018
  • Beauty and the Bleach. Skin-whitening trend ravages Senegalese women February 18, 2018
  • A gastronomic odyssey through St. Pete’s literary haunts – Taste of Russia Ep. 17 February 18, 2018
  • Beauty and the Bleach.Skin-whitening trend ravages Senegalese women (Trailer) Premiere 02/19 February 15, 2018
  • Of Ice and Fame. Medvedeva v Zagitova: friends off the ice, rivals on it February 14, 2018
  • Is this a yolk? Ostrich omelettes & peculiar pastries - Taste of Russia Ep. 16 February 12, 2018
  • Champions of the spirit. Unknown stories of 1st Soviet Olympic medalists February 8, 2018
  • Of Ice and Fame. Medvedeva v Zagitova: friends off the ice, rivals on it (Trailer) Premiere 02/10 February 7, 2018
  • Champions of the spirit. Unknown stories of 1st Soviet Olympic medalists (Trailer) Premiere 02/09 February 5, 2018
  • Art at the Stake. Afghan artists risk lives to return style, music, and culture to their country February 5, 2018

RSS RT Today

  • House CANCELS March 4 session after Capitol Police cites ‘possible plot’ by militia March 4, 2021
  • Step toward ‘new normal’? New York rolls out ‘Covid passport’ at event venues to prove attendees’ vaccination & testing status March 4, 2021
  • Another excuse to stay? Report on failures of US ‘gender programs’ in Afghanistan says they should continue anyway March 3, 2021
  • WATCH: SpaceX Starship prototype EXPLODES after ‘mostly successful’ test flight & touchdown March 3, 2021
  • Biden blasts Texas, Mississippi for lifting Covid-19 restrictions: ‘No time for Neanderthal thinking’ March 3, 2021
  • ‘I would take jab at any time’: German regional leader urges Berlin to use Russia’s Sputnik V in vaccination campaign March 3, 2021
  • New York Gov. Cuomo refuses to resign despite harassment scandals, claims he 'never touched anyone inappropriately' March 3, 2021
  • Israel accuses Iran of ‘environmental terrorism’ over oil spill off its coast, warns culprits ‘must pay price’ March 3, 2021
  • WATCH: SpaceX Starship high-altitude test flight aborted at LAST MOMENT on launch pad March 3, 2021
  • Promoting democracy abroad ‘by example’ at home: Biden administration outlines top foreign policy priorities March 3, 2021

RSS RT: USA News

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RSS Sail Transport Network

  • We Did It: Sailing Cargo in the Aegean July 18, 2017
  • Cure for Depending on 90K Oil Spewing Cargo Ships: Sail Power Makes Inroads, Now in Mediterranean June 15, 2017
  • Dirty Fossil Fuel ‘Business-As-Usual’ Tactics Spew Out of the IMO at COP22 November 10, 2016

RSS Science-Based Life

  • Sciencey Stuff You May Have Missed: Week 22 June 1, 2015
  • Sciencey Stuff You May Have Missed: Week 21 May 25, 2015
  • Sciencey Stuff You May Have Missed: Week 20 May 18, 2015

RSS ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

  • Bahamas were settled earlier than believed March 3, 2021
  • Tenfold increase in CO2 emissions cuts needed to stem climate emergency March 3, 2021
  • Ecosystems across the globe 'breathe' differently in response to rising temperatures March 3, 2021
  • Temperature and aridity fluctuations over the past century linked to flower color changes March 3, 2021
  • Journey of a skull: How a single human cranium wound up alone in a cave in Italy March 3, 2021
  • Humans control majority of freshwater ebb and flow on Earth March 3, 2021

RSS ScienceDaily: Top Science News

  • Origin of life: The chicken-and-egg problem March 2, 2021
  • Neanderthals had the capacity to perceive and produce human speech March 1, 2021
  • The right '5-a-day' mix is 2 fruit and 3 vegetable servings for longer life March 1, 2021
  • Microbes deep beneath seafloor survive on byproducts of radioactive process February 26, 2021
  • Did teenage 'tyrants' outcompete other dinosaurs? February 25, 2021
  • Comet makes a pit stop near Jupiter's asteroids February 25, 2021

RSS Scrap Weapons

  • Gender Inclusion: A Crucial Path towards Attaining Disarmament? February 26, 2021
  • Beyond AEGIS: Strategic Stability and Emerging Technologies February 5, 2021
  • To break cycles of war we must break cycles of custom: Why we need women within disarmament January 31, 2021

RSS Seemorerocks

  • Potentially important news from the North Pole March 4, 2021
  • Its a satanic world! March 4, 2021
  • Humorous satire from Australia on Jacinda Adern March 4, 2021

RSS Shadow Government Statistics

  • Flash Commentary No. 1458 February 24, 2021
  • Flash Commentary No. 1457 February 16, 2021
  • Flash Commentary No. 1456 February 1, 2021

RSS Shame Project

  • Wall Street Journal Issues Epic Correction On Radley Balko’s Error-Riddled Reporting August 14, 2014
  • Malcolm Gladwell’s “David & Goliath” Asks Us To Pity the Rich October 27, 2013
  • Radley Balko: Anatomy of a “Stand Your Ground” Shill July 29, 2013

RSS Simple Climate

  • Why we should be wary of ’12 years to climate breakdown’ rhetoric April 22, 2019
  • Can we fight climate change on our own? March 11, 2019
  • Becoming more than an old gasbag: Climate chemistry on YouTube, cryogenic energy storage, and community renewable energy November 22, 2018

RSS Skeptical Science

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RSS Smithsonian – Smart News

  • Watch First Time-Lapse Footage of a Rare Moonflower Cactus Blossoming March 3, 2021
  • University Building Identified as One of the U.S.' First Schools for Black Children March 3, 2021
  • Long-Lost Babbler Bird Documented in Borneo for the First Time in Over 170 Years March 3, 2021
  • Smithsonian's 'Futures' Exhibition to Feature Virgin Hyperloop's Record-Breaking Transportation Pod March 3, 2021
  • How Researchers Are Reading Centuries-Old Letters Without Opening Them March 3, 2021

RSS Social Text Journal

  • Once Upon a Time: A Book Review of Lucie Elven’s The Weak Spot Bella Bravo
  • Four Poems Sophia Dahlin
  • On Alex Blanchette’s Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm Claire Bunschoten
  • Four Poems Eric Sneathen

RSS Speaking Truth to Power

  • Will You Be Diagnosed With Mysticism In 2021? By Carolyn Baker December 29, 2020
  • Collapsing Into The New Administration Amid Pandemic Lunacy, By Carolyn Baker December 7, 2020
  • Collapse Changes Everything: Stop Whining For Perfection, By Carolyn Baker November 9, 2020

RSS squashpractice

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RSS State of Nature

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RSS State of the Union

  • Untitled March 3, 2021
  • Untitled March 3, 2021
  • Untitled March 1, 2021

RSS Stephanie McMillan

  • Auctions raised over $300! August 12, 2019
  • Auction through 8/10 to support Blackjewel miners blocking train tracks August 3, 2019
  • Auction of painting to benefit workers organizing for improved conditions at Amazon warehouse in Chicago August 2, 2019
  • Some Functions of Art in the Revolutionary Movement July 1, 2019
  • Interview with Voyage MIA January 31, 2019

RSS Steve Cutts

  • Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a better 2021! December 24, 2020
  • The new normal July 17, 2020
  • “THIS SUMMER” July 4, 2020
  • Untitled March 24, 2020

RSS Steve Lendman Blog

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RSS Stop the War Coalition

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RSS Submedia TV – Molotov!

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RSS Subrealism

  • Covid Vaccine Death And Injury Stats Don't Add Up March 3, 2021
  • Are mRNA Vaccines Riskier For Obese People? March 3, 2021
  • Ain't Nobody Gonna Pay To Reduce Aerosol Transmission - Matter Fact - Don't Even Talk About It!!! March 3, 2021
  • One Of My Homegirls Chewed Me Out Cause I Won't Buss It Open For A Swab And A Jab..., March 3, 2021
  • Da'Fug Wrong With Andrew Cuomo's "Oh Me So Horny" Ole-Ass?!?!?! March 2, 2021

RSS Subversify Magazine

  • Statement from Subversify July 18, 2020
  • #Cancelled – a discussion on censorship vs. cancel culture July 8, 2020
  • Disney Villains Had It Right – The Heroes Were Wrong June 23, 2020
  • Seward, Ak. Across the Bay June 23, 2020

RSS Summit County Community Voice

  • Best Car Lumbar Support: Reviews (2021) March 3, 2021
  • Car Lights: Everything You Should Know March 3, 2021
  • Car hydrogen fuel cell (comprehensive guide) February 27, 2021
  • Brake drum replacement: steps, costs, & tool kit (2021 guide) February 27, 2021

RSS Sun Weber

  • “Pity the nation" June 20, 2019

RSS Survival Acres

  • Practical Preparations February 20, 2021
  • The List of Traitors Who Acquitted Trump February 14, 2021
  • Pleistocene Park February 5, 2021

RSS Surviving Capitalism

  • Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, March 3, 2021 March 3, 2021
  • Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, March 2, 2021 March 2, 2021
  • Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, March 1, 2021 March 1, 2021

RSS Talking Points Memo

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RSS The Agonist Blog

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RSS The Angry Arab

  • Migrated to Twitter December 18, 2018
  • Will US global hegemony last for another century? November 24, 2018
  • Eulogy of Dar As-Sayyad November 20, 2018
  • My interview from yesterday on the latest about the Khashoggi matter November 20, 2018

RSS The Archdruid Report

  • This blog is now closed... June 21, 2017

RSS The Art of Annihilation

  • The Great Reset: The Final Assault on the Living Planet [It’s Not a Social Dilemma – It’s the Calculated Destruction of the Social, Part III] December 31, 2020
  • It’s Not a Social Dilemma – It’s the Calculated Destruction of the Social [The Enclosure of Africa, Part II] December 25, 2020
  • It’s Not a Social Dilemma – It’s the Calculated Destruction of the Social [Part I] December 20, 2020
  • COMMENTS on ‘Green’ billionaires behind professional activist network that led suppression of ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary December 20, 2020

RSS THE AUTOMATIC EARTH

  • Debt Rattle March 3 2021 March 3, 2021
  • Debt Rattle March 2 2021 March 2, 2021
  • Emergency vs Humanity March 1, 2021
  • Debt Rattle March 1 2021 March 1, 2021
  • Debt Rattle February 28 2021 February 28, 2021

RSS The Big Picture

  • Why Peter Lynch Was Unique March 3, 2021
  • 10 Wednesday AM Reads March 3, 2021
  • Peter Lynch is the GOAT March 2, 2021
  • 10 Tuesday AM Reads March 2, 2021

RSS The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

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RSS The Conflicted Doomer

  • No Blog Post Today January 31, 2015
  • Get Ready January 24, 2015

RSS The Conversation: Energy + Environment

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RSS The Cost of Energy

  • Elevatorul auto, unul dintre cele mai importante instrumente dintr-un service February 27, 2020
  • Avantaje si dezavantaje pentru iPhone 7 June 6, 2018
  • Cele Mai Bune Jucarii pentru Pisici February 15, 2018

RSS The Daily Banter

  • MAJOR UPDATE: The Daily Banter Is Closing Down And Moving Exclusively To Email February 11, 2019
  • Watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rips Apart Dark Money In Politics In 5 Astonishing Minutes February 8, 2019
  • Eddie Haskell's State Of The Union Was An Infuriating Study In Gaslighting February 7, 2019
  • Let Them Eat Fake February 5, 2019
  • Trump Described By U.S. Intelligence Officials As Willfully Ignorant February 3, 2019

RSS The Daily Impact

  • Some of Our Highways Are Missing March 2, 2021
  • Politicians on Easy Street February 26, 2021
  • Getting Over Him February 15, 2021
  • Senator Joe Manchin Keeps Nope Alive February 6, 2021
  • Mr. President, Congratudolences January 19, 2021
  • Cooling Our Jets January 11, 2021

RSS The Dark Mountain Project

  • The Edges of the Earth March 3, 2021
  • Alexandria February 24, 2021
  • Plunder – a call for submissions for Dark Mountain: Issue 20 February 17, 2021
  • Torching for Newts February 10, 2021

RSS The Disaffected Lib

  • A Trip Down Memory Lane January 15, 2021
  • McConnell Tells Trump to "Back Off" October 20, 2020

RSS The Dissenter

  • Dissenter Weekly: Leak Prosecutions Against BLM Protesters, Police Whistleblower In Illinois July 11, 2020
  • US Government Plays Games With Reality Winner’s Life As Coronavirus Outbreak Is Confirmed At Carswell July 8, 2020
  • Beyond Prisons: Historian David Stein Reflects On Ascent Of Abolition