Tag: Politics

• Organize 2020 and Durham’s Tipping Point

  I’m posting today to ask folks to consider supporting an Indie Go Go campaign currently heading into its final week by Organize 2020, the social justice caucus of the North Carolina Association of Educators.  As an active member of this group, I have been impressed by the commitment, vision and integrity of people involved in this…

  jhd123

  July 28, 2015

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Current Events, Economics, Education, Politics

  Bryan Proffitt, Durham, Durham Association of Educators, Economics, Eddie Conway, education, Jillian Johnson, Organize2020, Politics, Race

• Dirty Harry Does Diversity.2: Indicting Invictus

  (Like the original Magnum Force, this post is a sequel to the first Dirty Harry.) Of all of Clint Eastwood’s “Sympathy for the Other” movies, Invictus was the most popular in the Land of the Liberals.  J. Edgar (gays), Million Dollar Baby (women), and Gran Torino (SE Asians) all did well but received more criticism than…

  jhd123

  March 22, 2015

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Current Events, Dirty Harry Does Diversity, Film, History

  A.O. Scott, Africa, american empire, ANC, Barack Obama, Capitalism, Civil Rights Movement, Clint Eastwood, Economics, Films, IMF, Invictus, Irvin Jim, Left media, Matt Damon, Nelson Mandela, Neoliberalism, NUMSA, Pambazuka News, Patrick Bond, Paul Jay, Politics, profit margins, Race, Selma, The New York Times, The Real News Network, Washington Consensus

• Dirty Harry Does Diversity.1: Magnum Tucked In Tweed

  One of the weirder phenomena of early 21st century cinema has been the emergence of Clint Eastwood as would-be spokesman for various groups marginalized by the white male power structure his famed ’70’s character Dirty Harry once defended with a famously long phallic symbol.  Million Dollar Baby (2004) concerned itself with issues of gender and…

  jhd123

  February 18, 2015

  Dirty Harry Does Diversity, Film, History, Series of posts, Uncategorized

  ANC, Angela Y. Davis, Berkeley CA, Black Panther Party, Brezhnev, Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry, Ed Sanders, Films, Gran Torino, Invictus, J. Edgar, J. Hoberman, Jack Kerouac, John Wayne, Magnum Force, Million Dollar Baby, Nelson Mandela, Other John Davises, Pauline Kael, People’s Park Protest, Politics, Race, Reds, Roger Ebert, Ronald Reagan, The Enforcer, The Ex, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Tim Buckley, Too Many Cowboys, Warren Beatty, William F. Buckley

• World on a Wire

  As I keep track of the unfolding struggle over the FCC’s proposed creation of a corporate “fast lane” on the internet that would regulate non-corporate media to second class status online, I’m reminded of the film World on a Wire by Rainer Fassbinder, which I watched on DVD a couple of months ago.  Despite being…

  jhd123

  May 24, 2014

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Film, History, Politics, Uncategorized

  Amanda Hess, Astrid Taylor, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Capitalism, Democracy Now, Digital vs. Analog, Feminism, Films, Gravity’s Rainbow, History, Jesse Jackson, Jessica Gonzalez, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Neoliberalism, Politics, Poor Democracy, profit margins, Race, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rich Media, Robert McChesney, The Real News Network, Thomas Pynchon, World on a Wire

• Top 40 Over 40.16: Holding It Down

  One possible answer to the question I posed in my post on Reckoning with REM – How come their early portraits of Southern life never said anything about the history of racist violence and forced labor in their native Georgia, even on their album Fables of the Reconstruction / Reconstruction of the Fables? – is that…

  jhd123

  March 2, 2014

  Music, Record Reviews, Top 40 Over 40

  Afghanistan, american empire, Blowback, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, chalmers johnson, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Holding It Down, Imperialism, In What Language?, Iraq, Lynn Hill, Maurice Decaul, Mike Ladd, Minutemen, Music, Politics, Race, Record Reviews, REM, Still Life With Commentator, Top 40 Over 40, Vijay Iyer

• Corporate Welfare.6: Pulling a Fast One

  UC Berkeley’s Labor Center has published a new study on the role public subsidies play in the business model of fast food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s.  Like the other corporations in this series of posts, it turns out that these firms surreptitiously pocket billions in public subsidies while preaching the doctrine of…

  jhd123

  October 17, 2013

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Politics

  Burger King, Capitalism, Economics, Fast Food Forward, Food Justice, Labor movement, McDonald’s, Neoliberalism, Politics, profit margins, Strikes, The Real News Network, UC Berkeley Labor Center, Washington Consensus, Wendy’s

• Top 40 Over 40.13: Weird Al’s “Party In the CIA”

  I can think of few more unlikely candidates for creative growth after 40 than Weird Al Yankovic.  Back when I was in grade school, he came on the pop culture radar with “Eat It,” his parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”  His string of similar Dr. Demento style hits willfully sucked all of the sexual…

  jhd123

  September 14, 2013

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Economics, Film, History, Music, Politics, Series of posts, Top 40 Over 40, Uncategorized

  Alias, american empire, Angelina Jolie, Argo, Barack Obama, Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, Capitalism, CIA, Donald S. Lopez, Films, History, Imperialism, Iran, Jennifer Garner, John Limbert, Juan Cole, Lockheed Martin, Michael Moore, Miley Cyrus, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Muhammed Sahimi, Party in the USA, Politics, Prisoners of Shangri La, profit margins, Record Reviews, Richard Gere, Saviors and Survivors, Sudan, TIbet, Top 40 Over 40, Weird Al Yankovic, William Hartung

• Corporate Welfare.4: Avoid Amazon

  Salon.com published a piece today with the provocative title, “Amazon is worse than Walmart.” Their argument centers on the notion that Amazon’s business strategy for years has been to accept near-perennial losses on a quarterly and yearly basis in exchange for achieving a near monopoly size “market share.” Walmart, by contrast, actually makes a profit.…

  jhd123

  July 30, 2013

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Politics, Series of posts

  Capitalism, corporate welfare, Dennis Johnson, Free Lunch, Melville House press, Monopoly, Neoliberalism, Politics, profit margins

• Corporate Welfare.3: Welfare Wings

  Today the Real News Network, who I encourage you to support during their current drive to win a matching gift, is reporting that “the Michigan strategic fund has decided to issue $450 million in bonds for a new stadium for the Detroit Red Wings, 44% of which will be financed publicly,” while the city is…

  jhd123

  July 25, 2013

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Book Reviews, Corporate Welfare, Debt, Economics, History, Politics, Series of posts, Sports

  Battle For Brooklyn, Brooklyn Nets, Capitalism, Dave Zirin, David Cay Johnston, Economics, Food Justice, Free Lunch, Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, Neoliberalism, New England Patriots, New York Yankees, Politics, profit margins, Real News Network, Rudy Giuliani, Sports, The Fall, The Nation

• Corporate Welfare.2: Subsidizing Sallie Mae

  Continuing this series on the publicly funded nature of so called private enterprise in this country…. Sometimes subsidies know how to disguise themselves.  Blackwater’s defense contracts bring them direct cash payments for no-bid contracts.  But student lenders like Sallie Mae get their government cheese in the form of regulations on interest rates.  In a double…

  jhd123

  July 3, 2013

  Debt, Economics, Politics, Series of posts

  Barack Obama, Capitalism, David Graeber, Doug Henwood, Economics, Elizabeth Warren, Left media, michael hudson, Neoliberalism, Politics, profit margins, Socialism, Spain, The Real News Network, Washington Consensus