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Category: Creative Commons

Why The United Nations Protects Empires While Failing To Protect Human Rights

Posted in Act Out!, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Video

So, you might be surprised to learn that Saudi Arabia recently gained a seat on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

That’s right — a country where male guardianship requires that women get permission to do everything from receive an education to travel, a country where women can not drive or leave the house without proper head-to-toe covering – and when they do everything is gender segregated — that Saudi Arabia was given a three year term as a member of the U.N. agency whose sole mission is to promote gender equality and women’s rights. Take a moment with that.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a nonprofit that tries to keep the international body accountable called the move “absurd — and morally reprehensible.”

Absurd as it may be — and it is fucking ridiculous — what’s even more absurd is that the appointment isn’t a sign that something is wrong at the U.N.

Containers: Global Capitalism At Sea & Transforming The Planet

Posted in Creative Commons, Occupy Wall Street, and Radical Media

The objects around you right now, from your phone to the clothes you wear to the coffee in your mug, most likely traveled to America in a shipping container on a massive cargo ship.

This simple fact, both obvious and mostly overlooked, has radically transformed virtually every aspect of global capitalism over the past several decades. That prosaic shipping container, and the process called “containerization,” are the subject of a recent 8-part audio podcast documentary called “Containers.”

The podcast is sponsored by a shipping company, which stirred some controversy, but the show usually reads as if it’s most sympathetic toward the rank and file workers of the docks, and the people who live nearby, than toward the industry as a whole.. While “Containers” is hardly anti-capitalist, the series and its creator Alexis Madrigal are openly critical of the consequences of unchecked growth.

Unpacking The Fascist Rampage On May Day In Austin: What Happened, What Went Wrong

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, and Journalism

On May Day, 2017 in Austin, Texas, a coalition of heavily armed Nazis shut down a radical activist march.

The international workers holiday brought a variety of activist events to the Texas capital, from workers’ protests organized by Fight For 15 to a sit-in at the Governor’s Office in opposition to SB4, the brutal and inhumane anti-Sanctuary Cities bill.

In the afternoon, a Communist organization in Austin had called for a radical (“red bloc”) march. While these kind of events are a fixture in cities like Portland and Seattle, but has only begun to appear in Austin in the last couple of years, and with far fewer numbers attending.

At 4pm, the designated start time, a couple dozen radicals dressed in black began to trickle into the meeting place, a downtown intersection near Republic Park. However, the fascists were already in the area and on the march, even as our people began to gather.

Although Republic Park is a historic meeting place in the city, it’s currently shut down for construction and surrounded by high fencing. In fact, the entire area around 4th and Guadalupe is full of construction, creating a boxed in atmosphere that the fascists used to their full advantage. Additionally a security camera operated by the local transit service, along with what was most likely an undercover cop disguised as a homeless man, were present at the site, further placing activists at risk.

Democrat Or Republican, War Is Always Waged For Profit

Posted in Act Out!, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Video

A curious thing happened recently when Donald Trump fired Tomahawk missiles at an airbase in Syria in early April, then dropped a bomb of record-breaking size on Afghanistan soon thereafter.

After less than 90 days of so-called “resistance,” during which even the mainstream media became so worked up that the Washington Post changed its motto to “Democracy Dies In Darkness,” suddenly that heap of dung coated in spray tanner was deemed “presidential.”

A candidate who makes it a point of congratulating dictators that moonlight as ISIS suppliers was apparently moved by the appalling footage of suffering chemical weapons victims — or his daughter was and then ran to daddy, or something like that.

Life On The Precipice (Gonzo Notes)

Posted in Creative Commons, and Gonzo Notes

Here I am, writing to you from the edge. From many edges, really.

By the time you read this, I’ll have turned 39 years old. I’m on the edge of 40, on the edge, I guess, of middle age.

I recently found out that I have glaucoma in my right eye, meaning that I’ll spend the rest of my life on the verge of losing my vision, as long as the eyedrops keep working.

Right now, it also feels like the country and the world are on the precipice, too. The Oval Office is occupied by a giant crybaby seemingly intent on baiting foreign powers into nuclear war via Twitter.

6 Reasons Why Justin Trudeau Is No Prince Charming

Posted in Act Out!, Creative Commons, and Journalism

Oh Canada!

And oh Justin Trudeau, because not a day goes by without someone from the United States praising the Prime Minister, his traditional good looks, his support for refugees, his firm handshake when he encountered Donald Trump or hey, did we mention he’s good looking?

And yes, I know it’s tempting to think that the body double for Prince Eric in the Little Mermaid is just the nicest of guys — and admittedly, it’s easy to understand why people who compare Trudeau to our fatuous oversized orange shit stain find something appealing about a world leader who can regularly form sentences that are both grammatically correct and free from openly fascist symbolism. But don’t get it twisted, Justin Trudeau is no angel: in fact, he’s the darling of the Canadian fossil fuel industry — you know, the people responsible for the Keystone XL Pipeline and its numerous planned sequels — and an enthusiastic supporter of the military industrial complex too.

For making neoliberalism look sexy again, I’m declaring Justin Trudeau this week’s Low Life Scum.