Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch
HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.
Archives from September 2008
When the Economic Stimulus of 2008 was being discussed early this year, I suggested that they save themselves the trouble of mailing out individual checks to the American taxpayer, and mail the whole lump-sum directly to China. After all, that was where it would fetc...
Is this what our nation has come to? War against unarmed working mothers? Have we no shame? Dozens of petite young mothers gathered this week in the parking lot outside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Mississippi. ...
Henry Kissinger was no amateur when it came to illegally bombing and invading countries that he and the evil President Nixon considered did not meet American requirements of unconditional servility, but even he must be intrigued about the latest antics of Washington&...
Treasury Secretary Paulson’s grand scheme to buy $700 billion of toxic derivatives from ailing financial institutions is a pipe dream that logic and history show will not work. The Paulson plan is nothing but manna from heaven for distressed institutions. No do...
The US Senate "has embraced last year’s Defense Science Board conclusion that directed-energy weapons — such as high-, medium- and low-power lasers — hold great potential and should be developed as soon as possible. In the fiscal 2009 defense a...
Wall Street must be saved for the sake of Main Street, Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke tell us. First, everyone has toxic financial instruments in their 401k’s; and second, these instruments are clogging the credit system. But in fact neither claim is t...
My grandfather knew about bankers. With his father, my great-grandfather, he built a machine-shop business in Cleveland, Ohio, based on the idea that you offered a product in the free market – machined ball-bearings and such – and if there was a demand, y...
Taxpayers receive preferred stock and collateral from a bank borrowing from the taxpayers, both in the full amount of the loan sought by the bank. In other words, stock plus collateral in double the amount of the loan. Taxpayers profit from a bailout before anyone el...
While taking a significant toll on public revenues , repayment of public debt has, since 2004, ceased to be a major concern for most middle-revenue countries and for raw material exporting countries in general. In fact th...
The tireless members of United Healthcare Workers (UHW) will be on the march again this weekend, in what’s likely to be one the largest anti-trusteeship protests in U.S. labor history. Thousands of rank-and-filers will tell Service Employees International Union...
On the fateful evening of September 18th, when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pulled together a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss the rapidly deteriorating state of the U.S. financial system, congressional lead...
Congress needs to show some backbone before the federal government pours more money on the financial bonfire started by the arsonists on Wall Street.
1. Congress should hold a series of hearings and invite broad public comment on any proposed bailout. Congress...
Antonine Bienaimé was doing what she does every day, selling single candies, cigarettes, cookies and crackers from trays she sets up in front of her home that doubles as a shop. The mother of eight was working into the evening of August 7, trying to earn enoug...
On Monday, a squadron from the Russian Navy’s North Sea Fleet sailed for Venezuela in an effort to bolster military links with Latin America. In November, the convoy will take part in joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan Navy. The Russian fleet inclu...
“Moscow waited for almost 24 hours, during which Georgian artillery and planes were sending the capital of South Ossetia to ruins. Almost 1600 people were killed in the shelling. Now it is being presented by the mainstream media exclusively as Russi...
The banksters’ plan now is for icing on the cake – to take Mr. Paulson’s $700 billion and run. It’s not a “bailout of the financial system.” It’s as giveaway – to insiders, to sell out all their bad bets. Companies acro...
There’s mounting talk on Capitol Hill that a Wall Street bailout will include some limits on executive compensation, as well as contradictory reports about whether a deal on controlling executive pay has already been reached.
Four days ago, such a move s...
On January 20, 2009 a new president will take over the White House. It will either be John McCain – the “Maverick Man” who will no longer be in the US Senate, that famous non-“Washington insider” institution – one heart beat away f...
Most of the debate on the Wall Street bailout revolves around the strings attached to the torrent of cash which is, according to economists, necessary to stabilize credit markets.
True to Bush administration form, the Paulson plan outrageously insists on a vir...
Remember the good old days when the economic threat was mere recession? The Federal Reserve would encourage the economy with low interest rates until the economy overheated. Prices would rise, and unions would strike for higher benefits. Then the Fed would put on the...
One of my favorite critiques of our ad-saturated modern world is in "Infinite Jest,"...
Since John McCain picked her as his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been widely criticized by the media for her lack of foreign policy experience. A politician from a remote U.S. state, Palin has shown little interest in travel—she obtained her fi...
Our current Palestinian situation can be characterized candidly, as one observer described it over 20 some years ago, as a “fragmented national mood”; where more than 80% perceive themselves to suffer from depression and worry; where the percentages...
Here’s the situation: Thanks to its own inability to control itself, Wall Street is now facing a crisis unmatched since the Great Depression. Unfortunately, a collapse of the financial sector would not only hurt rich investors, it would devastate the global eco...
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
– Language from Section 8 Treasury...