The topic of secession has become increasing more common in recent years as various regions and minority populations (e.g., California and Texas) has openly suggested breaking away from the United States. The idea is forwarded with varying levels of seriousness, but the fact that talk of secession is increasingly done openly and repeatedly suggests increasing strength for what the political scientists call "centrifugal" forces. That is, cultural and political trends increasingly point toward growing separation and away from increased union. But even those willing to entertain the idea of...
Brexit
6/17/22 Max Blumenthal on Paul Mason and British Intelligence’s Crusade Against Independent Journalism
Download Episode. Scott interviews Max Blumenthal about what’s been happening between Paul Mason and The Grayzone. Mason is a British Trotskyist turned Neocon who never stopped identifying with the left. He has built up a reputation in British media as a leftist while building relationships with British intelligence officials. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mason decided to wage an all-out war on any media establishments that showed even a hint of skepticism towards the pro-NATO narrative of the war. The Grayzone, where Blumenthal works, was able to obtain emails revealing...
Elon Musk, Twitter, and the ‘Ministry of Truth’
Just last week, I finally got around with starting to read Crime and Punishment, Fyodr Dostoevsky’s famous novel about a Saint-Peterburg student’s murder of an old lady pawnbroker. The murderer and book’s main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, got the idea from a fellow student whom he overheard saying at a local eating establishment: “On the one hand, you have a nasty, stupid, worthless, meaningless, sick old woman who’s no use to anyone. […] On the other hand, you have young fresh energies that are going to waste for want of backing. […] If one were to kill her and take her money, in order...
Workers of the World Unite (Just Kidding!)
Nearly a month ago a convoy of tractor trailers and passenger vehicles full of protesters descended on Ottawa, the capitol of Canada. Their message has been clear: “lift all mandates and COVID restrictions.” The Canadian Government’s response (in addition to invoking emergency powers) has been to call them racists, fascists, NAZIs, seditionists, and white separatists despite the diversity of people protesting the draconian measures. The Ottawa City Counsel continues to call on strong-arm police tactics to silence opposition to their technocratic rule, and the left has gleefully joined the...
Poland vs. European Union: A Battle of Political Sovereignty
Across the pond, Poland and the European Union find themselves deadlocked over a question about judicial primacy. In early October, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal sparked controversy when it ruled that EU law does not supersede national legislation. At stake in the EU-Poland legal dispute, was Poland’s decision in 2018 to rein in its judiciary and establish a disciplinary chamber to remove judges. Before these reforms were undertaken, the Polish judiciary was largely viewed as corrupt and inefficient, possessing vestigial features of the previous Communist order, when Poland was a...
Hearing the Other Side: Democracy v. Libertarianism. Frank Furedi and Keith Knight
https://youtu.be/AzUoqiLeWq8 Frank Furedi is a professor of sociology at the University of Kent, we discuss objections to his thesis in Democracy Under Siege: Don't Let Them Lock It Down. Buy the book here: Democracy Under Siege - Amazon Democracy, as we practice it, is unjust. We expose innocent people to high degrees of risk because we put their fate in the hands of ignorant, misinformed, irrational, biased, and sometimes immoral decision makers....The problem with political decisions isn't merely that most of us don't get our own way. It's also that these decisions are usually...
Authoritarian Populism v. Libertarianism. Tom Palmer and Keith Knight
https://youtu.be/uuew9Ycs2qU The liberal revolution implanted indelibly in the minds of the masses — not only in the West but in the still feudally-dominated undeveloped world — the burning desire for liberty... Murray N. Rothbard Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, p. 47 LBRY.tv: https://lbry.tv/@KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone:b/Authoritarian-Populism-v.-Libertarianism.-Tom-Palmer---Keith-Knight-(1):d Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/video/DW868INQLd2R/ Minds: https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1150966000642465792?referrer=KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone Archive:...
News Roundup 7/23/20
US News Ohio State House Speaker Larry Householder was arrested in a massive corruption scheme to get bailouts for failing nuclear power plants. [Link] Trump announces the expansion of Operation Legend. The operation is the deployment of federal police to cities identified as out of control. The operation will expand to Chicago and Albuquerque. [Link] The Department of Justice will spend $61 million on grants to hire federal police officers for Operation Legend. [Link] The police officer who murdered George Floyd was charged with several counts of tax fraud. [Link] The Senate rejected an...
Could the Coronavirus Be Fatal for the EU?
Since the EU’s debt crisis over Greece in 2009 and the subsequent problems with Italy, Spain, and Portugal, eurozone banks have dedicated their balance sheets to financing government deficits. At a cost to the commercial banks’ own cash flows, negative deposit rates at the ECB have ensured that no material losses have arisen from holding short-term government bonds on their balance sheets. And the only other beneficiaries have been the large corporations which through bond issues have managed to lock in zero or even negative interest rates on their debt. Officially, this has not...
Small Countries Are Better: They’re Often Richer and Safer Than Big Countries
In the wake of the Brexit vote, Scottish nationalists have renewed their calls for a new referendum on Scottish independence. But many remain unconvinced, and many claim Scotland is "too small" to be an independent country. Others claim that Scotland is too poor, since Scotland's GDP per capita is only 90 percent that of England. But by no measure is Scotland a "poor" country. It may be poorer than England, but Scotland's GDP per capita puts it about halfway down the rankings of all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. That means it's similar to France...