Monthly Archives: June 2015
Frankenstein: The Ideal GOP Candidate Reply
It’s fitting that a monster should be the candidate of the Part of War and Plutocracy
“Brooks acknowledged that the field is using rhetoric “that’s not very libertarian, that’s a lot more aggressive on foreign policy than we’ve seen in a long time.”
“Kristol issued a cautionary note: Billionaires, he said, “can be a problem.” When candidates spend too much time with wealthy donors, “as a result, they have a slightly weird view about what people care about and where the voters really are.” He cited the fact that candidates often discuss cutting capital-gains taxes, while voters are more likely to be interested in lowering payroll taxes, as one example.”
Fail.
News Digest June 30, 2105 Reply
SWAT Raids Wrong Home, Breaks Windows, Then Issues Citation for Broken Windows Free Thought Project
Rand Paul Becomes the First Major Party Presidential Candidate to Court Pot Donors Rare.Us
Hillary Clinton is a Gift to the Global Elite by W. James Antle III
How Campus Feminism Infantilizes Women by Matt Welch and Jim Epstein
The Neuroscience of Six Drugs in a Nutshell by Dylan Goldstein
Study Reveals Police are Shooting Three People Everday Countercurrents News
Jeb Bush Sucks Up to the Neocons by Warner Todd Huston
The Tao of “Orange is the New Black” by Sophie Gilbert
Greece Defaults bv Gillian B. White
What’s Really Happening in Puerto Rico? by Gillian B. White
Gay Marriage: What-the-Fuck-Ever by Jack Donovan
Lincoln Chafee: Let’s Bring Edward Snowden Home by John Nichols
So You Think That Rainbow Makes You Look Cool? by Christopher Cantwell
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Liberty From A Scottish Perspective With Antony Sammeroff Reply
Caity and Dan welcome back Antony Sammeroff for a second time to the show.
Antony begins by explaining the difference between ‘libertarianism’ and ‘voluntaryism’ and moral philosophies versus political philosophies. We talk about labels and how they are used in society. We get into terms like ‘anarchist’ and ‘anarcho-capitalist’ and the baggage that comes with them and the importance of living your values.
We chat about political debates and how to conduct them with others, government cuts and the current anti-cuts movement in the UK, if Hitler was charismatic or not and being perceived to be a Tory.
We go on to point out the problems with the Conservatives, Labour and the Scottish National Party, pro-state attitudes that are so common in Scotland, the expansion of libertarianism world-wide and the internet as a tool for political and philosophical debate and Caity tells us what anarchy means to her in a philosophical context.
As we wrap up Antony tells us of his plans for the future, we talk about consequential and de-ontological libertarianism, the nonsense of lifeboat situations and Peter Hitchens and the drug war that he supports.
40th Anniversary of Pine Ridge Shootout 1
Reason
Today is the 40th anniversary of the June 26, 1975, shootout at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota between two FBI agents who drove in with unmarked cars and several members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a Native American rights group operating out of the reservation at the time. Both FBI agents were wounded by gunfire before appearing to be shot execution-style, and a member of AIM, Joseph Stuntz, was also fatally shot. The FBI never investigated his killing but reports he was “apparently shot by a law enforcement officer at the scene” during the shootout.
Despite having a population of just 12,000, there were more murders in Pine Ridge in the two years before the shootout than in the rest of the state of South Dakota combined. Three years ago, the FBI resolved to reinvestigate 45 homicides contemporary tribal leaders say remain unresolved. In the 1970s, many of the unsolved murders were attributed to the “Guardians of the Oglala Nation” (GOON) squad, a vigilante-like group organized by the tribal chair, Dick Wilson. AIM and others blamed Wilson, a “progressive” (as opposed to the “traditionalists” of the AIM), for the campaign against “traditional people,” and accused him of widespread corruption, not uncommon in tribal governments at the time.
News Digest June 29, 2015 Reply
Should We Lower the Age of Consent to Protect Teenagers? by Amanda Hess
Congress Hopes to Tackle Criminal Justice Reform This Year Liberty Unyielding
Almost 90 Percent of US Wiretaps Listen for Suspected Drug Deals by Brian Anderson
The ACLU Now Opposes Religious Freedom Because Christians Need It by Robby Soave
Mass Incarceration is Leading to Economic Ruin by Robert Reich
Rand Paul: Privatize Marriage TIME Magazine
The 2016 Results We Can Already Predict Politico Magazine
Bernie Sanders Has Overtaken Hillary Clinton in the Hearts and Minds of Democrats Films for Action
Julian Assange on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Democracy Now
Egyptian Human Rights Defender Completes First Year in Prison by Nada Ramadan
47 Percent of Americans Would Vote for a Socialist by Kali Holloway
Confidence in US Police Lowest in 22 Years Truth Voice
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The Real War Heroes 6
Chapter 1 of the book
RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War
By William T. Hathaway
“That must be them.” Petra took one hand off the steering wheel and pointed to a group of soldiers about two hundred meters away, standing along our road next to a high chainlink fence topped with barbed wire.
Traffic was light, but Petra said, “I don’t want any other cars around.” She pulled off the road and stopped. “Get everything ready.”
I crawled into the back of the car and opened the rear hatch to give access to the interior and to raise the license plate out of sight. We wore caps and sunglasses to be less recognizable. More…
Robert Stark interviews Robert Lindsay about the Charleston Church Shooting Reply
Robert Stark interviews Robert Lindsay about the Charleston Church Shooting
Topics include:
Racist Mass Shooting in Charleston, South Carolina
The shooters Motivations
The characteristics and causes of mass shooters
Dylann Roof’s Manifesto
White Nationalism, Sex and Gender
On Sluthate
Why People Say Looks Don’t Matter for Men
Robert Stark interviews Matt Forney about Social Justice Warriors & Bella and the Bulldogs Reply
Robert Stark interviews Matt Forney about Social Justice Warriors & Bella and the Bulldogs
Topics include:
“NAACP President Rachel Dolezal Outed as White Woman”
“5 Modern Day Social Justice Warriors Who Would Have Been Institutionalized in the Past”
Bella and the Bulldogs Cuckold Show
Matt experience at the American Renaissance Conference
“4 Reasons Why Living Abroad is Not All it’s Cracked Up to Be”
“4 Tips to Make Moving to a New City a Lot Easier”
California State Assembly passes resolution equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism Reply
The Zionist wing of totalitarian humanism strikes!
By Annie Robbins and Matthew Taylor
Mondoweiss
School’s out, but that didn’t stop California’s state assembly from passing Resolution HR35 buttressing a controversial report commissioned by the University of California that accuses students and faculty of contributing to an environment fostering anti-Semitism on campus.
The report’s recommendations, which seek to limit criticism of Israeli state policies as a form of “hate speech”, have been criticized as an assault on academic freedom and an attempt to limit student and faculty’s first amendment rights to free speech.
There was no debate by lawmakers prior to approval, nor was Israel even mentioned during the introduction of the resolution.
AP:
An Assembly resolution urging California colleges and universities to squelch nascent anti-Semitism also encouraged educators to crack down on demonstrations against Israel, angering advocates for Muslim students.
With no debate, lawmakers on Tuesday approved a resolution that encourages university leaders to combat a wide array of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel actions.
…….
The Assembly’s actions also drew criticism from free speech advocates. Carlos Villarreal, director of the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, called the resolution irresponsible and dangerous because it combines legitimate condemnations of acts of intimidation and hate with specific objections to tactics used to support the Palestinian people.
News Digest June 28, 2015 Reply
Here’s How Much Corporations Paid U.S. Senators to Fast Track the TPP Bill by Nick Sorrentino
After Same-Sex Marriage, What’s Next? by Robert P. Jones
Should Religious Schools Worry About Losing Their Tax-Exempt Status Over Gay Marriage? by Jason Russell
What Happened When Portugal Decriminalized Drugs by Sophie McAdam
Real Reform in the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration? Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Woman Faces 30 Years in Prison for Using Medical Marijuana CounterCurrents News
Baltimore Police Shoot Unarmed Man for Standing in “Defensive Position” CounterCurrents News
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No joke: Iceland’s Pirate Party surges into first place in the polls Reply
By Stephen Wolf
Daily Kos
The Icelandic Pirate Party
Iceland has long been one of the more right-leaning Nordic countries. In contrast to Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, which all have a long tradition of electing Social Democratic governments, Iceland’s parliament has been dominated by right-of-center parties for all but four years since World War II. The only break in that streak came in 2009, when the left won for the first time ever—and elected the world’s first openly gay head of state. The unusual result came about because the global financial meltdown hit Iceland with particular ferocity, but tradition seemingly reasserted itself four years later when the right-leaning Independence and Progressive parties regained power in a landslide.So it comes as a massive shock that the last few months of polling has shown the incumbent coalition hemorrhaging support not to the center-left Social Democrats or to the left-wing Left-Green Movement, but to the nascent Pirate Party, which has surged into the lead in public opinion polls due to dissatisfaction with the mainstream parties.
Indeed, a recent Gallup survey found the Pirate Party with the support of 34 percent of voters while another found them with 35 percent. That puts the Pirates ahead of the Independence and Progressive Parties’ combined support despite those two ruling-coalition partners winning 51 percent together just two years ago. That dramatic shift is illustrated in the bar chart below:
attribution: Daniel Donner
So what the heck is this “Pirate Party,” and why are they suddenly so popular? Head below the fold to learn more about this deeply unusual phenomenon.
Gay Marriage, Good News and Bad: Some Thoughts on “Marriage Equality” 1
If during the course of some Twilight Zone moment I had found myself on the Supreme Court this past term here’s how I would have approached the gay marriage issue before the Court:
First, the objections to gay marriage.
1. Gay marriage is against religious teachings. Perhaps, but in a society whose core political charter guarantees free exercise of religion, this is an irrelevant argument.
2. Gay marriage goes against tradition. Perhaps, but then so does marriage based on companionate monogamy. Historically, most marriages were arranged by the families of the bride and groom, and polygamy was also widely practiced, at least among wealthy males. Additionally, an appeal to tradition alone often produces embarrassing results. Case in point: “Tradition” was one of the arguments used by slavery apologists in past times.
3. Gay marriage is unnatural. Perhaps, but the same was said at one time about interracial marriage, which was illegal in parts of the United States until 1967. It is doubtful that many Americans really want to go down that road.
4. A same-sex coupling does not produce children. No, it doesn’t. But then neither does a marriage between two sixty-five year old heterosexual partners. Besides, it’s not like the creation and raising of children is the only or even the primary function of marriage in our own culture. People get married for all kinds of reasons: romance, companionship, sex, money, social status, to defy their parents, immigration status, insurance benefits, and many other things.
Ideally, marital relations would not be a matter that involves the state. Instead, different religious and cultural communities would have their own standards concerning what constitutes a legitimate marriage, and the purely economic aspects of marriage would be no different that an ordinary business contract.
However, the fact remains that we do have state-sanctioned marriage, and this status conveys on marital partners a variety of legal benefits. Among these are inheritance rights, property ownership rights, survivor benefits in the event of the death of spouse, critical decision making prerogatives when a spouse is incapacitated, power of attorney, hospital visitation rights, the exemption of marital partners from testifying against one another in court, and a number of other things.
War and revolution in the trenches of Rojava: Position of the revolutionary anarchists Reply
Our Enemy, the State Reply
News Digest June 27, 2015 Reply
Are Leftist, Feminist Kurds About to Deliver the Coup de Grace to ISIL in Syria? by Juan Cole
Topple the Cult of the Presidency by Lucy Steigerwald
It’s Time to Legalize Polygamy by Fredrik DeBoer
Rand Paul Takes a Stand by Justin Raimondo
Keynes, the Great Depression, and the Coming Great Default by Gary North
“I Don’t Get Debate Over the Confederate Flag. We Need to Put the American Flag Down.” by Louis Farrakhan
Many Are Shocked by the Size of the Crowds Bernie Sanders is Drawing by Michael Arria
America’s Slave Empire by Chris Hedges
Leaked Report Reveals Many Cops Are Members of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs Countercurrents News
WASHINGTON – The White House glowed with rainbow pride on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of nationwide same-sex marriage. Politico.com
Some random posts by anarchists of different kinds on the issue of gay marriage:
Anarchists on Gay Marriage AnarchistAgency.Com
Anarchists vs Gay Marriage Mrdotwill Squatter
An Anarchist View of the Gay Marriage Debate Jeff Shantz/Fifth Estate
No Right to Marry Davi Barker/Daily Anarchist
Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Marriage Political Media Review
Should an Anarchist Support State-Recognized Gay Marriage? Anarchy Without Bombs
Gay Marriage is Regressive Francois Tremblay
Voting for Marriage Equality while Being Critical of Marriage Workers Solidarity Movement
Robert Stark interviews Aleksey Bashtavenko about Introversion & Extroversion Reply
Robert Stark interviews Aleksey Bashtavenko about Introversion & Extroversion
http://www.starktruthradio.com/?p=1339
Robert Stark and co-host Robert Lindsay talk to Aleksey Bashtavenko about the differences between introversion and extroversion
Topics include:
How few people are purely introverted or extroverted but rather have tendencies to one or the other
Carl Jung’s Theory of Temperaments on psychological types and temperaments
How introversion and extroversion are temperaments which are inborn traits
How introverts suck in energy and extroverts push out energy
The book Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection which states that social isolation leads to serious psychological problems
Robert Lindsay’s statement that introverts are inhibited and rarely engage in aggressive behavior and how extroverts commit most violent crime
However introverts can build up rage and in some instances unleash that rage upon society (ex. Elliot Rodger, Ted Kaczynski)
The politicization of personality types and pop psychology (ex. TheMBTI and Typology Central forums)
The argument that introverts are socially and economically discriminated against and how Robert Lindsay disagree’s with Aleksey’s assertion that they are not
Susan Cain: The power of introverts
Societal stereotypes and prejudices against introverts
How there is a lot more to personality theory than just introversion and extroversion
My Flag is the Black Flag: Some Thoughts on Charleston, Gun Control and the Confederate Flag 1
The recent murder of nine African-Americans in Charleston, South Carolina by a deranged white supremacist has generated something of a backlash against the Confederate flag, long a symbolic target of the Left in America’s ongoing culture wars. Massacres carried out by a mentally disturbed lone gunman are hardly a novelty in the United States. In fact, they’re fairly routine. Sometimes the killers are motivated by racism, sometimes by other things, and sometimes they seem to have no apparent motive at all. Perhaps this should come as no surprise. A nation of 320 million people is statistically likely to include quite a few fruitbats among its populace.
Everything from video games to guns to TV to the Confederate flag gets blamed for these characters. But I think the real issue is family and community breakdown. Do any of these freaks have parents, siblings, neighbors, landlords, co-workers, employers, friends, teachers, etc. who could tell they were obviously severely mentally disturbed and probably dangerous? Both serial killers and public shooter/mass murderer types are uniquely American in terms of volume, frequency, and proportion, and I think it has to do with the hyper mobile, hyper competitive, impersonal, rootless anomie you find in American culture that’s somewhat unique on a world or historical basis. At the same time, America does not presently have the much larger scale inter-communal violence found in some other parts of the world, primarily the “failed states” of Asia and Africa, so maybe the occasional deranged lone gunman is a cheap substitute.
Whenever these events occur, the gun control do-gooders start crawling out of the woodwork and citing their statistics concerning how the murder rates in the European Union and Japan are considerably lower than those of the U.S. which they attribute to the generally stricter gun laws of those nations.
News Digest June 26, 2015 Reply
Guest Column by Vladimir Putin by Paul Craig Robers
No Joke: Iceland’s Pirate Party Surges into First Place in the Polls by Stephen Wolf
Charleston and Gun Rights by Sheldon Richman
Gun Control’s Racist Reality: The Liberal Argument against Giving Police More Power by Alex Gourevitch
Rothbard’s Perversion of Marx by Erick Vasconcelos
Gender Identity and Libertarianism by Mikayla Novak
Greek Democracy is Failing by Paul Craig Roberts
I Loved Working at a Legal Brothel in Australia by Sarah Penello
Racism is Alive in the U.S. North, Too-Just Without Southern Accents and Flags by Zach Stafford
Liberalism is Not Leftism by Neil Ashton
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Is ISIS Coming to Damascus? Reply
By Pat Buchanan
Antiwar.Com
That question, which has bedeviled U.S. experts on the Middle East, may need updating to read: Who rises when Assad falls?
For the war is going badly for Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since Richard Nixon was president.
Assad’s situation seems more imperiled than at any time in this four-year civil-sectarian war that has cost the lives of some 220,000 soldiers, rebels and civilians, and made refugees of millions more.
Last month, ISIS captured Palmyra in central Syria, as it was taking Ramadi in Iraq. A coalition, at the heart of which is the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, seized Idlib province in northern Syria and is moving toward the coast and Latakia.
Half of Syria has been lost to ISIS, the Nusra front, and other jihadist and rebel groups. All of Syria’s border crossings with Iraq have been lost to ISIS. All of the border crossing with Turkey, excluding Kobani, have been lost to ISIS or rebels linked to al-Qaida. Syria’s border with Lebanon is becoming a war zone.
Some 100 Russian military advisers are said to have pulled out of Syria, suggesting Vladimir Putin may be reconsidering Russia’s historic investment.
Indicating the gravity of the situation, Syrian sources claim 7,000 to 10,000 foreign Shiite fighters, Iraqi and Iranian, have arrived to defend Damascus and launch an offensive to recapture Idlib.
Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Gen. Yair Golan, who headed the Northern Command, was quoted this week, “The Syrian Army has, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.”
Israeli sources report that Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, Assad’s indispensable ally, is warning that the real threats to the Shiites of Lebanon are ISIS and the Nusra Front. Fighting between Hezbollah and Syrian rebels is taking place along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Assad has been written off before, only to survive those who predicted his demise. But given the balance of forces and the way in which the tide of battle is turning, it is hard to see how his regime and army can long resist eventual collapse.
Reflections on Anarcho-Syndicalism Reply
By Vrijdag 20
National Revolutionary Voice of the Netherlands
Anarcho-Syndicalism is not left wing
The terms “left”, “right” and “centre” are, in the purest sense of the words, parliamentary concepts. These “directions” within the political spectrum are derived from the perspective of the representatives in parliament. On the right there were the Conservatives, on the left the Social Democrats or Communists and in the centre the Liberals.
These terms traditionally include some political associations, trade unions and (other) political alliances, who because of their Anarchist principles refrain from parliamentary participation. These can’t actually be categorized within these terms because they are fundamentally distinct from the Social Democratic and Communist movements. They are not centralized and don’t promote statism, nor do they subscribe to the doctrine of historical materialism as the sole explanation for the history and for the future. They don’t find their strength in submission, authority or personality cult, but in thinking for oneself, self awareness and a respect for individual emancipation. They represent a movement that begins at the base, without representatives, bureaucrats or leaders.
Anarcho-Syndicalism has as much in common with “Socialist” parties, as it has with the authoritarian Monarch or the Capitalist despots. Throughout history free and emancipatory never have been inspired by parliamentary activities, but rather strictly rejected it. Under both the “left”, “right-” and “centre” governments freedom-loving ideas and activities are strongly suppressed. Under all of these regimes Anarcho-Syndicalists were oppressed, persecuted, put in prison or even killed. Both in Fascist and “Democratic” Italy and Germany, Tsarist and Communist Russia, Capitalist and Communist Cuba, monarchist and Fascist Spain. In each state with a centralized structure of police, secret services, bureaucracy and army, they were persecuted and oppressed. Anarcho-Syndicalism, both in theory and in practice, has little in common with Marxists, Capitalists, and Fascists or with terms such as “right”, “left” or “centre”.
These directions and terms are typically used to insinuate that there existed no difference between Marxists and other authoritarian movements on the one hand and Anarcho-Syndicalism on the other hand. But the boundaries don’t run between “left” and “right” but always between “under” and “above”. Parliamentary representatives and governments of any kind, whether these are “rightwing” or “leftist” governments, are fundamentally rejected.
What is Fascism? Reply
By Woensdag
National Revolutionary Voice of the Netherlands
On the 23rd of May, 1919 the former revolutionary Marxist Benito Mussolini established the “Fascio di Combattimento” (combat union) with a small group of sympathizers in Italy. Until 1920 it remained a marginal group in the extreme leftwing of the political spectrum. The opportunistic swing to the right, along with the sudden sharp frontal stance against communism and socialism, ensured that the fascist movement got an unexpected strong impulse in the period 1920-1921. After the “red tidal wave” (september 1920), when striking workers in northern Italy started with factory occupations and the establishment of worker soviets, the fascists could count on the warm sympathy and benevolent support from the Italian bourgeoisie.
Within a short period of time, thanks to the support of the liberal bourgeoisie, the state bureaucrats, parts of the army and the Catholic Church fascism got a further influx and became a mass movement in Italy.
“Nothing outside the State, nothing against the State, everything for the State” was the notorious and one hundred times repeated formula of the totalitarian fascist State. The concept of the State is the ideal that fascism persues. It is their highest value, and therefore other important values such as selfcontrol, people and culture were considered by fascism to be secundary, if they recognized it at all. From the perspective of the Italian masses the fascists always stayed the murderers of workers and agents of the hated landlords and factory lords, on which fascism indeed was depended throughout it’s lifetime.
Fascism can not be possible without a strong State, which opresses the people and considers workers to be the slaves of the State. Fascism puts the interests of the State before the welbeing of the people. Examples include the Franco-fascism in Spain (1939-1975). Also the Hitlerite variant of National Socialism was similarly constructed in a Statecapitalist way, just as the fascist ideology; it also suppressed its own people, advocated a bourgeois State nationalism and persued imperialist utopias.
