politics
Politics does not dictate our collective cultural mindset as much as it simply reflects it; We've got to look in the mirror sometimes, and we've got one.
Dear Theresa...
Dear Mrs. May, As conference season gets started you, Theresa May, have a serious problem if you're unable to unite conservatives: Jeremy Corbyn. And I hope you don't. The Labour leader has higher leadership ratings than you, and by most accounts, would be a more decisive and inclusive leader. I'm sure it upsets you that a no-name old lefty, who is classically anti-war and anti-nuclear — something you love — is surging in the polls since the summer, threatening to dump you into political exile. What has happened since your election, you were once so popular? Brexit has divided your country, and even more so, your party. In through this little gap has slipped your greatest challenge yet, likely tougher than any political battle you have yet fought at a time where your political capital is evaporating. Not a great time to be you.
By Joseph Farley8 years ago in The Swamp
The Potomac Institute, the CIA, and 9/11
The Potomac Institute has grown steadily since September 11, 2001. In May of the same year, before the attacks that defined American foreign policy for a generation, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies announced the publication of Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network by Yonah Alexander and Michael S. Swetnam. They stated that the infamous terrorist group was, “A loose international network in over 55 countries, the al-Qaida has been responsible for spectacular terrorist operations, such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York, the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa, and is allegedly linked to the attack of the destroyer USS Cole in Aden harbor, Yemen, in 2000.” The authors go on to say, “The book is designed to provide an easily accessible reference guide for academics, policy makers, reporters and others interested in one of the most notorious terrorist groups. It aims to increase the understanding of al-Qaida by exposing much of its mystique, placing it in perspective as one of the many challenges facing the international community in the 21st century. The volume contains sections on the al-Qaida's ideology, membership, financial resources, affiliated groups, areas of operation, tactics and capabilities, and targets and attacks.” The Potomac Institute had placed themselves to be the go to experts for the coming 9/11 attack.
By Johnny Vedmore8 years ago in The Swamp
Are You Liberal, or Your Kind of Liberal?
‘I’m a believer of free speech.’ ‘I don’t judge.’ ‘People should be allowed to express their opinions freely...’ This is the current soundtrack to today’s society. It’s quite a beautiful tune if truth be told. Why wouldn’t one love to shuffle day to day through our sometimes monotonous tasks, through our rat-race paced city to this sympathetic and tolerant atmosphere? Do we not all have enough dilemmas, doubts and disputes without the addition of the judgmental, the joyless and the jaded?
By K.R Coughlan 8 years ago in The Swamp
On the North Korean Crises and the New Silk Roads
A recent informal discussion among several academics and civic leaders outside of the United States trying to understand and analyze emerging trends in light of emerging crises touched on a very disturbing geopolitical possibility, a probability according to some but mere speculation according to others, a healthy split in opinion. The possibility discussed was that the recent series of Korean crises were instigated by the United States as a means of derailing Sino-Russian advances towards the creation of a Eurasia-centric economic market including new transportation paradigms but also a dollar-free alternative international financial structure.
By Guillermo Calvo8 years ago in The Swamp
Racist British Media Ruined Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival is the second biggest carnival in the world, after Rio de Janeiro. Given the almost polar opposite climate and demographic of the UK, I would say that’s quite impressive and really pays tribute to the amazing contributions of Caribbean people to British culture.
By Cicely Blain8 years ago in The Swamp
Indian Guides. Top Story - August 2017.
A truly moral nation, wishing to leave as its legacy the foundational principles and guiding ideals of freedom, fairness, justice, responsibility, and love and regard for future generations, must fully own the sins of its past and bend over backward to rectify crimes against humanity, which have too often been fueled by the American government’s unlawful interest in favoring the greed of a master population over the survival and viability of the oppressed peoples from whom its power was unlawfully derived. Particularly victimized have been this continent’s and nation’s First Peoples. As the majority of Americans continue to be beneficiaries of unconscionable acts of brutality, malice, racism, religious bigotry, theft, and other wanton acts of avarice against First Peoples, it is incumbent upon us and future generations to show the moral courage, stamina, sound judgment and wisdom the generations before us abdicated, for the evils exist not only in the past, but much as our own continued benefits from the crimes and privations of genocide sustain us, so do those crimes and privations continue to inflict undue suffering upon the most marginalized, impoverished, and vulnerable among us—a people so marginalized, indeed, that even the most well-meaning of liberals, rejecting the overt and cynical racism of President Trump’s brand of immigration reform, rally to the cry, “We’re all immigrants!” — seemingly or happily oblivious to the reality that some 5.2 million of us are not.
By Padma Thornlyre8 years ago in The Swamp
The Thing About Alexandria
In October of 2004, I attended Scott Air Force Base Elementary School in the Mascoutah Community Unit School District Number 19. My best friend was a boy named Max. My favorite food was a double cheeseburger. My best subject was world history. 9/11 was still fresh in the collective conscience of America and John Kerry pushed desperately against the rising tide of neoconservatism in the home stretch of the Presidential election. My most pressing dilemma? Which color to paint the shoebox for a diorama.
By Gabriel Cabrera8 years ago in The Swamp
National Economic Reforms: Department of Economic Development
Not since FDR has the United States been faced with the enormity of rebuilding America's economy and infrastructure. Today, our economy and our infrastructure is putting this nation's security and stability in grave danger. Our economy today is already on the verge of falling into the abyss by factors very reminiscent of the events that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. There is also another housing bubble like the one we just had in 2008 that is poised to burst. But, you wouldn't know it, the way Trump is citing his most illustrious accomplishments and the media with their bogus reporting of the unemployment numbers. What we are faced with today is that the United States is still woefully unprepared to handle any financial calamity. We have too many on capital hill continue to be oblivious to the calamity of either an infrastructure disaster or the continued economic woes that are keeping millions of American's languishing in financial devastation would do to this nation.
By Dr. Williams8 years ago in The Swamp
Brexit Terrorism: The Foreseeable Future of Britain’s Brexit Violence
The tectonic political plates of the United Kingdom are shifting and it’s about to cause the most violent vibrations that this island nation has ever experienced. On EU referendum day 2016 we measured the size of the seismic spikes and on that day it was 52% for leave to 48% for remain. But all those who took part know that the result could have been different if the ballots had been cast a week before or after. The fluctuating polls running up to the vote left the losers feeling sickened once the results came in. The leavers celebrated and then they mostly scattered and hid from the responsibility to actually effect the change for which they argued. Within a day of the result, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove had gone from loud to almost mute about the U.K.’s future political direction. Daniel Hannon fled to an extended holiday, Andrea Leadsom flopped in the Tory leadership struggle, and Nigel Farage applied to become German. The main voices of the leave campaign were suddenly as shaky as the ground on which Brexit was built.
By Johnny Vedmore8 years ago in The Swamp
