The socialist left says the evidence capitalism oppresses the poor is that free markets relocate factories to the poorest nations in order to pay the lowest wages. And when wage rates rise in poor nations like South Korea and Japan, they move their factories over to new poor nations like China and Indonesia, and then again likewise on to the next poor nations like Vietnam and Bangladesh. I see that as evidence of the opposite; it's evidence of free markets bringing jobs to the poorest-of-the-poor, raising their living standards to humane levels over a generation or two, and then moving on...
free press
Police Mistakenly Raid Home of Great-Grandfather, Permanently Injure Him
Despite police and their apologists constantly reminding us that “if we do nothing wrong, we have nothing to worry about,” innocent people continue to be arrested, beaten, and even killed by police carrying out deadly mistakes. Willard J. King, a Great-Grandfather from Sequatchie County, Tennessee found this out the hard way when he was beaten bloody by police in his own home during a wrongful raid, according to a lawsuit. King filed a lawsuit this month for the incident which unfolded in October of 2019 when police raided his home and attacked him in front of his granddaughter and her...
Matt Taibbi: The Youtube Ban Is Un-American, Wrong And Will Backfire
"There’s no such thing as a technocratic approach to truth. There are official truths, but those are political rather than scientific determinations, and therefore almost always wrong on some level. The people who created the American free press understood this, even knowing the tendency of newspapers to be idiotic and full of lies. They weighed that against the larger potential evil of a despotic government that relies upon what Thomas Jefferson called a “standing army of newswriters” ready to print whatever ministers want, “without any regard for truth.” We allow freedom of religion not...
Assange Isn’t Getting a Fair Trial Because He Exposed the Empire
On FPF #458, I discuss Julian Assange's extradition hearing. Assange is being forced to sit in a bulletproof glass box. Julian is barely able to hear what is going on in the trial, and he is unable to confer or speak with his lawyers to get clarification. He continues to face dehumanizing tactics like repeated strip searches. Assange is unable to get a fair trial because he exposed the crimes of the empire. His court fight is now the fight for a free press.
Greenwald Interviewed on His Charges
In The New Yorker: The case against you relies in part on the claim that you helped in “facilitating the commission of a crime.” Did you do anything to encourage the hacking of cell phones or other devices? No. In fact, when the source first talked to me, he had already obtained all the material that he ended up providing us, making it logically impossible for me to have in any way participated in that act. And the federal police, just a few months ago, concluded that not only was there no evidence that I committed any crimes but much to the contrary, I conducted myself, in their words,...
10/3/18 William Hartung on Trump’s Space Force
William Hartung joins the show to give his views on President Trump's proposed Space Force. He explains that American satellites are in fact vulnerable to attack by foreign powers, but that a space force is a highly impracticable approach to protecting them, and one that is more likely to provoke attack than to prevent it. The idea of a Space Force is popular, however, because the arms contractors know it will mean more money for them, the existing efforts at space warfare within the Air Force (which are considerable) would get more funding and authority with their own branch of the...
Everyone Should be Listening to Nobody Speak
When Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, sued Gawker Media for invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, the suit’s chief effect was to amplify the “news” that Bollea had been caught on video having sex with another man’s wife. Par for the course as salacious popular culture goes, and most of us treated it that way: As something of a joke. The laughter came to an abrupt halt when a jury found in Bollea’s favor, bankrupting Gawker with judgments totaling $140 million. In his new film, Nobody Speak, director Brian Knappenberger...
The Absurd Consequences of a “Right to Privacy”
British MP David Davis’s text messages poking fun at the appearance of a female colleague make him the latest whipping boy for those determined to root out sexism and misogyny in public life, the Daily Mail reports. Curiously, they also make him the latest poster boy for exponents of an expansive “right to privacy” like Brendan O’Neill of spiked magazine. I’m not sure how Davis’s text messages — in which he denied attempting to kiss MP Diane Abbot because “I am not blind” — became public. The Daily Mail doesn’t say. Perhaps the recipients talked about them. Perhaps his phone was hacked....