February 2010
81 posts
3 tags
The real state of the union in 2010 →
“Obama spoke in vague generalities about the crisis, but he cited virtually no facts. He deployed a variety of rhetorical devices to make a show of sympathy for the plight of ordinary Americans, but his speech only revealed the chasm of insularity and indifference that separates not only himself, but the entire political establishment, from the broad masses of people.”
He began by...
6 tags
Bristol's rebel restaurant is the hottest ticket... →
The rebel restaurant is hidden behind a bright door in an old red brick building. Knock hard and a benevolent bouncer in a bomber jacket emblazoned with “anti capitalista” on the back opens up.
A maitre d’ (that probably isn’t the term an anarchist collective would use) greets guests and shows them into the lounge, where – and this is probably the biggest shock – smoking...
3 tags
Reddit Lurking: Comments on Anarchism
Note: None of these comments were highest ranking, only ones that I found interesting
Ask Anarchists: How can I implement anarchism in my daily life? (self.Anarchism) by AndreasBWagner
njyz 11 points 18 hours ago
Grow gardens, build things, play sports, learn languages, practice martial arts, read anything, write, draw, compose. Keep your mind sharp. Start clubs, meetups, workshops, co-ops....
January 2010
97 posts
7 tags
Softening the Transition To a Stateless Society →
Great article by Darian over at C4SS.
5 tags
@BroadSnark: Irrational Fears and the Status Quo →
Oddly appropriate considering a recent conversation I’ve had about the vilification of people.
1 tag
1 tag
Historian Zinn Said "Largest Lie" Was U.S. "War on... →
Zinn predicted accurately that once the American public realized President Bush had lied to them about Iraq they would turn against the government. “When it loses its legitimacy in the eyes of its people, its days are numbered,” he said of the Bush administration. Writing of his personal feelings, Zinn said, “I wake up in the morning, read the newspaper, and feel that we are an occupied country,...
3 tags
Howard Zinn, RIP →
*Zinn on the proper model of education:
Skepticism is one of the most important qualities that you can encourage. It arises from having students realize that what has been seen as holy is not holy, what has been revered is not necessarily to be revered. That the acts of the nation which have been romanticized and idealized, those deserve to be scrutinized and looked at critically
3 tags
5 tags
2 tags
TechShop is the SF Bay Area's Only Open-Access... →
Ooooh… this is right down the freeway from me…
2 tags
In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the... →
“Transformative change happens when industries democratize, when they’re ripped from the sole domain of companies, governments, and other institutions and handed over to regular folks. The Internet democratized publishing, broadcasting, and communications, and the consequence was a massive increase in the range of both participation and participants in everything digital — the long tail of...
3 tags
2 tags
1 tag
Author J.D. Salinger dead at 91 - CNN.com →
J.D Salinger is dead too?! Wow… in two days the world has lost two greats.
6 tags
“Every time a person’s needs are supplied from outside the system, a barrier to...”
– Feed People, Not Politicians
6 tags
Glenn Greenwald: Presidential assassinations of... →
“Just think about this for a minute. Barack Obama, like George Bush before him, has claimed the authority to order American citizens murdered based solely on the unverified, uncharged, unchecked claim that they are associated with Terrorism and pose “a continuing and imminent threat to U.S. persons and interests.” They’re entitled to no charges, no trial, no ability to...
1 tag
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo,... →
I was just beginning to learn about Howard Zinn too. Mr. Zinn will be missed.
4 tags
“Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are...”
– Howard Zinn
5 tags
Which Anarchism? Which Autonomism? Between... →
“Anarchists and autonomist Marxists played a vital role in the development of the Alternative Globalization Movement (AGM), especially with regard to their distinct contributions and insights in the realm of strategy and organization. Despite their common anticapitalist and antiauthoritarian orientation, however, their practical and theoretical approaches to issues of organization and change...
7 tags
BroadSnark | Women, Are You Up for a Gathering? →
Reposting this from @broadsnark.
“Long story short, there are tons of women out there who aren’t just sitting around talking theory. They are doing amazing things to “create the new world in the shell of the old.” But we never hear about them. And women rarely take the time to step back and talk to each other about what we are doing.
So, I thought, why don’t we have a...
7 tags
U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google
“In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.
Google’s system isn’t unique. Democratic governments around the world — in Sweden, Canada and the UK, for example — are rushing to pass laws giving their police new powers of...
3 tags
Creepy Game: Akinator
So this creepy game figured out I was thinking about the Big Daddy Character from the game Bioshock… okay that was easy, geeks and their games… but it also figured out I was thinking about Proudhon? Wow.
http://us.akinator.com/
Next up: Ben Tucker
Update: Tucker FTW!
3 tags
The Apostasy of the Anarchist Vote « On ALLiance →
Not sure I completely agree with Jeremy, but he does make some thought provoking points and this is an issue I’ve been struggling with personally. If I ever do vote again, it will most likely be on issues, not individuals.
3 tags
4 tags
An Nabi Salih: resistance to settlement expansion... →
More on Nabi Salih
4 tags
4 tags
Solidarity with the Japanese working class. The... →
Wow, there’s an IWW delegation in Japan! Though it seems as if the delegation blog hasn’t been updated in a while, I think this is great considering the work culture in Japan.
5 tags
EFF Plans Appeal of Jewel v. NSA Warrantless... →
“just this week, we learned that the FBI has been unlawfully obtaining Americans’ phone records using Post-It notes rather than proper legal process”
6 tags
db0: On the recent betrayal by the US “justice”... →
As I stated in a previous post, most individuals with anarchist leanings won’t be surprised by the recent supreme court ruling. db0 just proves that point with “some good ol’ honest cynicism”.
5 tags
NYT: The Court’s Blow to [Representative]... →
For most people of the anarchist persuasion, none of this is particularly surprising. It only codifies and legalizes what anarchists have known; that the capitalist state does not serve your interests but the interests of the capitalist class. The United States has been bought and sold and this is just the signature on the dotted line.
4 tags
Glenn Greenwald: Obama to indefinitely imprison...
Glenn Greenwald: Obama to indefinitely imprison detainees without charges
The New York Times’ Charlie Savage reports:
The Obama administration has decided to continue to imprison without trials nearly 50 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba because a high-level task force has concluded that they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release, an...
5 tags
Haiti hit by another large aftershock: 5.9-6.0 →
Haiti was hit with another big aftershock.
Donate if you can.
Grassroots International
Partners In Health
Doctors Without Borders
5 tags
US "Security" Companies Offer "Services" in Haiti
jeremyscahill:
By Jeremy Scahill
The Orwellian-named mercenary trade group, the International Peace Operations Association, didn’t waste much time in offering the “services” of its member companies to swoop down on Haiti for some old fashioned humanitarian assistance disaster profiteering. Within hours of the massive earthquake in Haiti, the IPOA created a special web page for prospective...
6 tags
Oppose US Occupation of Haiti | Industrial Workers... →
The US press, ever a good predictor of coming US policy, is now full of comments about “looters” and near riot situations. This is to establish the justification here at home for direct repression by the US troops, including orders to shoot to kill.
5 tags
5 tags
Yes it's okay to walk away from your mortgage →
Is it okay to walk away from your mortgage for no other reason that it doesn’t make financial sense to keep throwing your hard-earned money away?
There’s no universal answer here, but in most cases, the answer is “Yes, it’s okay to walk away.” Importantly, the reason is not that “Wall Street deserves it” or “We’ve got to teach the banks a...
4 tags
“IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages”
– Mental note: The IMF is evil.
IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
“They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.”
6 tags
60 Minutes: Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults
I really hate when people blame the mortgage buyers for causing the current economic problems. Watching this 60 Minutes segment really shows what kind of atmosphere was prevalent during the housing boom. Alt-A parties? Fake Paparazzi? All the hype to sell predatory mortgages to people the banks knew full well couldn’t afford it? Fraudulent mortgage applications?
Don’t blame the...
4 tags
Good post from @BroadSnark | Haiti Donations and... →
Good information from @BroadSnark on Nonprofits and how they work.
5 tags
Researchers identify command servers behind Google... →
“The source IPs and drop server of the attack correspond to a single foreign entity consisting either of agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof,” the report says.
If the report’s findings are correct, it suggests that the government of China has been engaged for months in a massive campaign of industrial espionage against US companies.
Update: More from NYT...
5 tags
Infoshop News: Major earthquake strikes Haiti;... →
Thanks to a couple of friends for pointing this out:
On Tuesday, a major 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, leveling cities and possibly killing hundreds of thousands. We are listing the more reputable aid organizations so that folks can donate.
Doctors Without BordersPartners in HealthGrassroots International Do not contribute to the Red Cross (organizational corruption) or Yele Haiti, Wyclef...
11 tags
America's Orwellian Nightmare: money is speech;... →
In addition to the Orwellian nature of the US military industrial complex, Monica Youn points to another frightening and Orwellian aspect of US society: election law and campaign finance reform. Though I’ve generally given up on electoral politics, Ms. Youn’s Opinion piece just further emphasizes who actually runs the US government.
“As 1st Amendment expert Linda Berger has...
5 tags
Watch“Land and Freedom, British director Ken Loach’s film about the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, says something quite different. It says that the present state of affairs was not inevitable, and that the working class is capable of uplifting and liberating itself. It says further that the cause of the failure of the Soviet Union lay not with socialism, but Stalinism.”
5 tags
6 tags
“Cooperatives offer a potential solution: Through shared ownership and democratic...”
– The Growth of Citizen Co-Ops Is a Positive Development As Corporations Fail Us in Every Way | | AlterNet
7 tags
Bank Of America Seizes Wrong House, Causes Big... →
Dr. Schroit has filed suit against BoA, saying that “he has neither a relationship nor a mortgage” with them. A Bank of America spokesman told the paper that the bank feels the lawsuit “has no merit.”
I’m not saying anybody should commit arson, but should a couple of branches of Bank of America go up in flames, I wouldn’t shed any tears.
6 tags
Pirate Party protests 'naked' scanners in their... →
A statement on the party’s website said they opposed the new security scanners because they threaten the “private sphere and the personal rights of passengers.”
4 tags
In Billings, Wobblies attempt labor comeback →
“Today, America is again at war and in financial trouble caused by bankers, corporate capitalists and other members of the elite 20 percent, Republicans are calling the president a socialist, and the Wobblies are back.”
Del Duca explains, “Americans are driven to work longer and harder. They come home, hurry through supper and collapse in front of the TV. There’s no time to nurture...
4 tags
Guantanamo guard reunited with ex-inmates →
“The news would always try to make Guantanamo into this great place,” he says, “like ‘they [prisoners] were treated so great’. No it wasn’t. You know here I was basically just putting innocent people in cages.”