As crowds of shoppers and ice skaters passed, a squad of camouflaged Iraq vets “detained” “suspects,” at two tables at an outdoor cafe in Union Square, in downtown San Francisco. The squad pulled almost a dozen “suspects” from their chairs, put them on the ground, cuffed, then herded the “suspects” to their knees on the [...]

Since a coupla reg’lars asked, here it is. A thread on that key intangible. Jose expressed interest in my own conversion(s) in light of this question — what speaks to us about right and wrong, in thought and action? Catlady was at the Oregon ferals gathering (and Kim sent me some pictures, but I can’t [...]

Antonia Juhasz has more than earned our attention over the last few years as an oil industry watchdog… including being on point to raise the alarm about the Iraqi “hydrocarbon law.” This reply (written by her) to a Washington Post hit-piece against her book is as good a recommendation as I can give for (1) [...]

I’m linking two articles here, one emphasizing the secular trends themselves, and one that links those trends to the kinds of activism that each issue demands. The reason this falls into the category of boundaries of executive power is fairly obvious, but I’ll reiterate what they have in common in this regard. (1) No matter [...]

“Our Trash for Your Cash” By Michael Hudson The financial press has been negligent in reporting how last week’s two top financial stories are linked: first, the testimony by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his evasive Interim Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari defending why they followed a completely different giveaway plan to the banks (their own [...]

…As with the auto industry in Detroit, some of the credit-card industry’s current problems have been years in the making. Over the past decade, U.S. households have been loading up on debt, with credit-card balances rising 75% since 1999. Yet families’ real wages have increased only slightly — by just 4% during that same time [...]

The Russians justifiably claim Gates may have already forced Obama’s hand. They see a distinct pattern. In August, cleverly using the Caucasus crisis and the unfriendly public mood in the West about Russia, Gates pressed ahead with the signing of an agreement on the deployment of elements of an American strategic missile shield – 10 [...]

David Roediger has been wrirting about “whiteness” for some time now. His book The Wages of Whiteness is canonical for anyone who is making a serious study of anti-racism, imo. This short but thoughtful piece from Counterpunch reminds us of the contradictions of race in the US. by David Roediger In the afterglow of Barack [...]

[Hat tip to Lisa... this one merits a post.] By Joshua Frank November 06, 2008 — – Tuesday’s celebration hangovers have finally started to wear off, and the pieces are beginning to fall into place. Change will be coming to Washington in January, but it is difficult to decipher what form it will take. Early [...]

People have heard me harp on John Boyd and the OODA-Loop (an acronym for a decision cycle in tactical conflicts). Tactical agility is something that is lacking in social movements, largely because we are mis-organized. Here is a piece from CP by Chuck Spenney on Boyd and Obama’s campaign “ground game.” Two things we ought [...]