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Beyond the Limits of Neoliberal Higher Education: Global Youth Resistance and the American/British Divide

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Henry A. Giroux - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - The global reach and destructiveness of neoliberal values and disciplinary controls are not only evident in the widespread hardships and human suffering caused by the economic recession of 2008, they are also visible in the ongoing and ruthless assault on the social state, workers, unions, higher education, students, and any vestige of the social at odds with neoliberal values. Under the regime of market fundamentalism, institutions that were meant to limit human suffering and misfortune and protect the public from the excesses of the market have been either weakened or abolished, as are many of those public spheres where private troubles can be understood as social problems and addressed as such.

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Breivik's Fundamentalist War on Politics, and Ours

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Henry A. Giroux - Aug. 03 (News Analysis) - by using the clip from "The Town," it appears that Republican leaders used gratuitous images of mind-crushing violence and retribution as a legitimate, even inspiring, framework for motivating support for legislative practices that will have deleterious, even violent, impacts on vulnerable populations in the United States, especially children. This is not merely barbarism parading as political reform - it is also a blatant indicator of the degree to which sadism and a theater of cruelty have become normalized at the highest reaches of government.

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Brainwashing the Corporate Way

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By John Pilger - Jun. 24 (Opinion) - Professionals are said to be meritorious and non-ideological. Yet, in spite of their education, writes Schmidt, they think less independently than non-professionals. They use corporate jargon - "model," "performance," "targets...

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Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Michael Pirsch - May. 25 (Opinion) - Our country is in tatters. While more and more of us plunge into official poverty status, our elected leaders, who are in service to the wealthy elite, argue about how much to cut from programs that "promote the general welfare." They squander our exhaustible resources on illegal wars. The rich have stolen so much from us that they comprise the wealthiest 1 percent in well over 100 years, and they are supported in all this by their pet pundits, who dominate the corporate media. And none of our elected leaders from either of the two parties question the morality of shredding the most basic programs "to promote the general welfare."

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The Renewable Future

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Achim Steiner, Helen Clark, Kandeh K. Yumkella - May. 15 (Opinion) - Renewable energy triggers sharply polarized views. For some, it is a costly white elephant; for others, it is humanity’s savior, promising to emancipate us (and our environment) from the “folly” of fossil fuels. So a hardheaded, credible, and, above all, impartial analysis, which would provide a much-needed dose of pragmatism and realism to the debate, is long overdue.

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Koch Brothers Fueling Far Right Academic Centers Across the US

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Lee Fang - May. 13 (Opinion) - FSU had accepted a $1.5 million grant from a foundation controlled by petrochemical billionaire Charles Koch on the condition that Koch’s operatives would have a free hand in selecting professors and approving publications. The simmering controversy sheds light on the vast influence of the Koch political machine, which spans from the top conservative think tanks, Republican politicians, a small army of contracted lobbyists, and Tea Party front groups in nearly every state.

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Weapons of Mass Exploitation

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Ravi Batra - May. 10 (Opinion) - The Iraq invasion turned out to be a colossal mistake in terms of lost lives and heavy expenditures that sharply raised the federal budget deficit. However, few realize that the Bush administration made a far bigger mistake in using what may be called Weapons of Mass Exploitation or WMEs, which have all but decimated the US economy and continue to do so.

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Lagging GDP Growth Shows Austerity Fixation Is Hurting Our Economy

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Robert Borosage, - Apr. 29 (News Analysis) - The first quarter growth figures—annual growth of 1.8% during the first three months of the year—are an ominous reminder of the reality that Washington has forgotten. This economy is in trouble. For most Americans, the recession has not ended. Growth is painfully slow. Unemployment remains high. Home values are dropping; gas prices are rising; wages are not keeping up. Despite this—and despite the warnings of economists—Washington, driven by the new House Republican majority, has turned prematurely to austerity. Contractionary policies cause contraction. They will impede any recovery, and slow an economy that is barely moving.

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The Link Between War and Big Finance | Truthout

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - More and more people are indeed seeing the connection between corporate banksterism and militarism; they are seeing how uncontrolled spending on war is resulting in austerity at home. In a recent interview, Cornel West brought the issues of the wealth divide, Wall Street and militarism together. Prof. West also spoke about Obama, calling him “a cagey neoliberal at home and a liberal neoconservative abroad" who expanded the wars and military while re-enforcing the existing Wall Street-dominated power structure at home, a president who has abandoned the poor and working class and is becoming” a pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business."

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Sacrificing Teachers and Firefighters to Hoovernomics

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jim Hightower - Apr. 06 (Opinion) - It has literally been incredible to hear these learned governors lecture us that fixing state budgets is simple: deregulate corporate power, cut taxes on the super-rich (again), fire tens of thousands of middle-class public employees, eliminate state programs even as the need for them rises and -- just to boost the morale of teachers, firefighters and others -- take away their democratic right to bargain collectively for workplace fairness.

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Libya and the World of Oil

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Noam Chomsky - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - In Egypt and Tunisia, the popular uprising has won impressive victories, but as the Carnegie Endowment reported, the regimes remain and are “seemingly determined to curb the pro-democracy momentum generated so far. A change in ruling elites and system of governance is still a distant goal” – and one that the West will seek to keep far removed.

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Waking Up to a Nuclear Nightmare

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Barbara Rose Johnston - Apr. 04 (News Analysis) - As Japan's nuclear disaster continues to unfold, a growing number of its citizens and residents are beginning their transition, becoming the newest members of the world's radiogenic community. Like the hibakusha, downwinders, uranium miners, atomic vets and the many who live in towns and cities that hosted the nuclear enterprise, they find their lives profoundly altered by a hazardous, invisible threat, where the fear of nuclear contamination and the personal health and intergenerational effects from exposure colors all aspects of social, cultural, economic and psychological well-being.

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Killing the Mentally Ill

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Robert Wilbur - Apr. 03 (Investigative Report) - with Reagan's incision barely healed, politicos across the country lined up to strangle the insanity defense and, in four states (Idaho, Montana, Utah and, later, Kansas) to abolish it altogether. In 1984, the federal government hopped on board with its own draconian insanity defense statute.

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New Yorkers Rage Against the Cuts

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Inter Press Service - By Kanya D'Almeida - Mar. 25 (News Report) - In the shadow of towering colonial-style office buildings of the world's most powerful financial district, a crowd over 5,000-strong amassed outside Manhattan's City Hall Thursday, chanting "The people united will never be defeated!" As the contagious effects of democratic uprisings radiate from North Africa to North America, New York City's exploited workers and students are not about to let the opportunity for mass struggle pass them by.

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Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants: The No BS Info on Japan's Disastrous Nuclear Operators

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Greg Palast - Mar. 15 (Opinion) - The failure of emergency systems at Japan's nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.

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Why Employee Pensions Aren't Bankrupting States

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Kevin G. Hall - Mar. 08 (News Analysis) - From state legislatures to Congress to tea party rallies, a vocal backlash is rising against what are perceived as too-generous retirement benefits for state and local government workers. However, that widespread perception doesn't match reality.

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"Facts Still Matter ..."

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Bill Moyers - Feb. 15 (Speech) - History Makers is an organization of broadcasters and producers from around the world concerned with the challenges and opportunities faced by factual broadcasting. Bill Moyers was the keynote speaker at the 2011 convention on January 27, 2011, in New York City.

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Big Win for Biotech: USDA Deregulates Monsanto Alfalfa

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Mike Ludwig - Feb. 07 (Special Report) - , the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has fully deregulated Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa that is genetically modified (GM) to be resistant to Roundup herbicide. The decision squashed a proposed compromise between the biotech industry and its opponents that would have placed geographic restrictions on Roundup Ready alfalfa to prevent organic and traditional alfalfa from being contaminated by herbicide sprays and transgenes spread by cross-pollination and other factors.read more

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For the US in Egypt, Blowback Is a Bitch

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Michael Winship - Feb. 06 (Opinion) - Almost seven years have passed since I spent some time in the Middle East. The closest I get to the opinions of "the Arab street" these days is the fellow who runs the delicatessen a block away from me. Mohamed is Egyptian, with family living in Cairo and outside the city. All of them are safe - as far as he knows. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must go, Mohamed says, but he fears that, regardless of the promises, Mubarak will figure out a way to keep his henchmen in power and the brutal legacy of cruelty and torture will continue.read more

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The Egyptian Tinderbox: How Banks and Investors Are Starving the Third World

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Ellen Hodgson Brown J.D - Feb. 03 (News Analysis) - "What for a poor man is a crust, for a rich man is a securitized asset class." -Futures trader Ann Berg, quoted in The Guardian UK. Underlying the sudden, volatile uprising in Egypt and Tunisia is a growing global crisis sparked by soaring food prices and unemployment. The Associated Press reports that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians struggle along at the World Bank-set poverty level of under $2 per day.read more

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Tax Cuts

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Clay Bennet - Dec. 12 (Cartoon) - Political cartoon that takes the term "tax cut" literally.

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Afghanistan War: Public Opinion Turns Sharply Against US Forces

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

truth-out.org - Dec. 12 (News Report) - Quoting a foreign diplomat, the article concludes: "They just do not want us here. The Western troops, when they came here [n 2001] said 'the Soviets were invaders, we are liberators.' But for Afghans it is all the same -- we are all 'foreigners.' They will fight anyone who comes here."

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Something is Rotten

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Dave Lindorff - Dec. 10 (Opinion) - In most countries, including the US and UK, these would not pass the test to be considered a crime, much less qualify as a category of “rape," but Swedish authorities, who in all of this year have only submitted one other request to Interpol for assistance in capturing a sex crimes suspect, asked the international police agency to issue a so-called Red Alert for Assange, who was subsquently asked by police in the UK, where he was staying, to turn himself in or face arrest. (The other Interpol Red Alert sought by Swedish prosecutors this year was for Jan Christer Wallenkurtz, a 58-year-old Swedish national wanted on multiple charges of alleged sex crimes and sex crimes against children.)

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Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees Akin to "Pharmacologic Waterboarding"

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold, Jeffrey Kaye - Dec. 01 (Special Report) - The Defense Department forced all "war on terror" detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison to take a high dosage of a controversial antimalarial drug, mefloquine, an act that an Army public health physician called "pharmacologic waterboarding."

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Special Prosecutor Declines to File Criminal Charges Over Destruction of CIA Torture Tapes

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold - Nov. 09 (News Report) - Nearly three years after he was appointed to investigate the destruction of at least 92 interrogation videotapes, a dozen of which showed two high-value detainees being subjected to waterboarding and various other torture techniques by CIA interrogators, Special Prosecutor John Durham has determined that he does not have enough evidence to secure an indictment against anyone responsible for the purge. Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Tuesday that Durham, a US Attorney from Connecticut, has "concluded that he will not pursue criminal charges for the destruction of interrogation videotapes."

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