StephenKMackSD's Blog

An Arab Spring?

PARIS – Is Tunisia the first Arab authoritarian domino to fall? Or is it a unique case that should not be viewed as a precedent for either the Arab world in general or the Maghreb in particular? The region’s dictators have sought to dismiss the “Jasmine Revolution,” but the spark that started in Tunisia could spread – perhaps in a matter of months or years – to the entire Arab world.

Indeed, the wall of fear has crumbled, the people have spoken, and an “Arab spring” could be at hand. The message from Tunisia, at least so far, is clear: corrupt and authoritarian regimes, beware: unless you reform deeply and quickly, your days are numbered. The greatest danger is that the Jasmine Revolution could go the way of Romania’s anti-communist uprising of 20 years ago, with the old regime’s underlings expelling their bosses in order to stay in power. Continue reading →

 

 

2011-01-25

 

Globalization Marches On

LONDON – In a recent symposium in the Financial Times on globalization’s prospects in 2011, the columnist Gideon Rachman observed that, “When Barack Obama visited India recently, the US President warned his hosts that the debate about globalization has reopened in the West,” and that “a backlash…is forming…and growing in advanced economies.” Continue reading →

His daughter, Jordy Bell, confirmed the death.

Mr. Bell’s output was prodigious and his range enormous. His major lines of inquiry included the failures of socialism in America, the exhaustion of modern culture and the transformation of capitalism from an industrial-based system to one built on consumerism. Continue reading →

The American Likudniks, Neo-Conservatives and their political allies continue to inveigh against Palestinian intransigence, while pretending that they await ‘good faith negotiation’ as a precondition for a settlement: a mirage that recedes into the historical distance: the obscene re-enactment of Lebensraum: the historical antecedent cannot be escaped.

Alito, Thomas Headlined Political Fundraisers Chaired By Leading Right-Wing Donor Paul Singer

A few months ago, ThinkProgress launched a series of investigations into relationship of the right flank of the Supreme Court — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Antonin Scalia — with corporate donors and Republican operatives. In October, we revealed, through a document obtained from Koch Industries, that Scalia and Thomas had attended secret right-wing fundraisers organized by Charles Koch to coordinate political strategy. ThinkProgress has now discovered more events attended by conservative Supreme Court justices. Continue reading →

We must speak out

By Daoud Kuttab, International Herald Tribune

For years, the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation from a foreign military occupation was criticized as two-faced. The late Yasser Arafat was dubbed a terrorist in sheep’s clothing; his attempts to simultaneously use military and political means to accomplish Palestinian goals were rejected by the Western world. Continue reading →