Skip to content

Archive

Tag: USA
John Malcolm Fraser the 82 year old Australian former Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia now alienated from his party has published an article in The Age Newspaper titled ‘All the way with the USA?’. Fraser states “There is increasingly aggressive posturing between China and American-backed Japan. If war breaks out Australia must not slavishly follow its superpower friend. The ownership of islands in the East China Sea now represents a highly sensitive and dangerous issue. There has been a significant escalation that could easily lead to conflict between China and Japan. A senior American intelligence officer has strongly sided with Japan and called China a bully on the high seas with ambitions to sink American warships and seize control of waters from its neighbours. He described China as a principal threat. We have the US and Japan lined up in concert against China. …If anyone thinks containment against China and containment against the Soviet Union had any similarities, they should be disabused. The Soviet Union had minimal trade links, no financial and capital market links worth mentioning with the West. China, on the contrary, is heavily entwined in the economies of nearly every Western country, certainly of Australia. It is the largest buyer of US Treasury bills. A war between America and China would have catastrophic results, first for America's economy, then for the economies of the world. If we had a government with a sense of history and of the future, we would seek to use our influence for peace and moderation. We should make it plain to America that we will not be going to war on that issue. We should oppose provocative action by any party. … When is Australia going to have sufficient courage to act as an independent nation?”  Inspired by John Malcolm Fraser, The Age ow.ly/i137R Image source Twitter ow.ly/i133G Courage to act as an independent nation (March 14 2013)

 

John Malcolm Fraser the 82 year old Australian former Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia now alienated from his party has published an article in The Age Newspaper titled ‘All the way with the USA?’. Fraser states “There is increasingly aggressive posturing between China and American-backed Japan. If war breaks out Australia must not slavishly follow its superpower friend. The ownership of islands in the East China Sea now represents a highly sensitive and dangerous issue. There has been a significant escalation that could easily lead to conflict between China and Japan. A senior American intelligence officer has strongly sided with Japan and called China a bully on the high seas with ambitions to sink American warships and seize control of waters from its neighbours. He described China as a principal threat. We have the US and Japan lined up in concert against China. …If anyone thinks containment against China and containment against the Soviet Union had any similarities, they should be disabused. The Soviet Union had minimal trade links, no financial and capital market links worth mentioning with the West. China, on the contrary, is heavily entwined in the economies of nearly every Western country, certainly of Australia. It is the largest buyer of US Treasury bills. A war between America and China would have catastrophic results, first for America’s economy, then for the economies of the world. If we had a government with a sense of history and of the future, we would seek to use our influence for peace and moderation. We should make it plain to America that we will not be going to war on that issue. We should oppose provocative action by any party. … When is Australia going to have sufficient courage to act as an independent nation?”

 

Inspired by John Malcolm Fraser, The Age ow.ly/i137R Image source Twitter ow.ly/i133G

Mirza Shahzad Akbar the Pakistani lawyer and director at the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, renowned for his legal action against the USA for drone strikes in Pakistan, has criticized the USA for authorizing drone strikes in Yemen. In an article by Jason Koebler on Aljazeera, Akbar states “They can’t kill them if they know someone is a low value target, however they can kill if they don’t know that person… They have a checklist, and here’s what they’re looking for—Are they carrying weapons? Do they have a beard and a turban? Are they traveling with a large group of people? Well, everyone in that area carries a weapon, a beard is part of the religion, turban is part of the culture. As for traveling in a group, well, it’s a society that has bigger families. If you’re looking for a pattern like this, you’re killing citizens and civilians. …The CIA is, so far, the only source of information. Look at the quality of the information they give you—it’s nothing. Who are they killing? Who are these people? What are their names? They say they’re taking out the bad guys, but the facts on the ground are very different, there are a huge number of women, children, elderly and incapacitated people. …Once people learn what’s really happening, they’ll complain. People need to make an informed decision.”

Inspired by Jason Koebler ow.ly/bs4MT image source Twitter ow.ly/bs5QO

John O. Brennan the 56 year old USA the Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the chief counterterrorism advisor to President Barack Obama, has officially acknowledged in a speech for the first time the administration’s targeted killing of Al Qaeda members abroad. Mother Jones in an article states ”But Brennan didn’t tell the whole story: He largely rehashed the legal rationale for targeted killings of specific Al Qaeda suspects, instead of defending the use of more controversial “signature strikes,” in which targets are selected based on a “pattern of behavior.” Brennan defended targeted killings as an effective tool against Al Qaeda that helps minimize civilian casualties and likened the use of drones to laser surgery, saying: “It’s this surgical precision—the ability, with laser-like focus, to eliminate the cancerous tumor called an al Qaeda terrorist while limiting damage to the tissue around it—that makes this counterterrorism tool so essential.” …To borrow Brennan’s cancer metaphor, if targeted strikes on particular suspected Al Qaeda militants help excise cancerous tumors, signature strikes sound a little like flicking a scalpel around inside a patient’s abdomen. I’m no medical expert, but that sounds to me like it would inevitably kill the patient.”

 

Inspired by Mother Jones http://ow.ly/aOTXR image source Pete Souza http://ow.ly/aOTLQ

Norman Gary Finkelstein the 58 year old USA political scientist, activist and author has been profiled by Natasha Mozgovaya on the Haaretz blog in reference to his latest book that she describes as surprisingly optimistic, despite its title ‘Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End’. “In June, Norman Finkelstein will mark 30 years of criticizing Israel. He remembers the exact day – the beginning of the Lebanon war, which ended his indifference to the Middle East’s troubles. …he [says he] is “not going to be an Israel-basher anymore.” It’s not that he’s changed his mind on the conflict, he just says blaming Israel has become too easy. “Nobody really defends Israel anymore” …They’ve lost the battle for public opinion, they claim it’s because American Jews know too little – I claim it’s because they know too much about the conflict, and young liberal Jews have difficulty defending the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon or supporting the Israeli settlements. I was bashing Israel in the past because nobody else was exposing its true record. Many people are doing it now, so I switched hats from a critic of Israel to a diplomat who wants to resolve the conflict. I have not changed, but I think the spectrum has moved.”

 

Inspired by Natasha Mozgovaya http://ow.ly/aONIu image source Miguel de Icaza http://ow.ly/aOND0

Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones the 43 year old USA lawyer environmental and civil rights advocate, and president co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for bottom-up, people-powered innovations to help fix the US economy. Jones has published an article on The Nation titled ‘The 99 Percent for the 1 Percent’. Jones states “The “99 percent versus the 1 percent” argument falls short in a lot of ways. The vast majority of Americans do not oppose their fellow Americans, simply because they are rich. To the contrary: more than perhaps any other people on this Earth, Americans admire success. What we detest is greed. We like economic winners; we hate economic cheaters. We cheer economic innovation; we despise financial manipulation. Like most people, I don’t hate rich people who buy yachts. (The workers who build those yachts are happy.) We don’t mind when wealthy Americans buy expensive toys; we do mind when they try to buy governors and Congresspeople. …We need everyone in our country to be involved in healing our economy and fixing our democracy. …A movement of the 99 percent for the 100 percent—powered by a deep love of working people and laying claim the best of our nation’s values—could yet transform our nation.”

Inspired by The Nation http://ow.ly/aEdzh image source Wikipedia http://ow.ly/aEdjC

Sheldon Richman a USA political writer and academic, editor of The Freeman magazine and renowned for his advocacy of left-libertarianism or market anarchism, has published an article on the US presidential candidate’s limited variations on their ‘Corporatist Theme’. In the article Richmond states, “So the presidential campaign is shaping up as a contest between a Democrat who says we had a free market from 2001 through 2008 and a Republican who agrees—he says “[w]e are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy.” You can’t cease to be something you never were. Thus  Barack Obama claims and Mitt Romney implicitly concedes that the free market 1) has existed and 2) therefore presumably created the housing and financial debacle. This bodes ill for advocates of liberty and voluntary exchange. Notice what will happen if this framing is widely accepted: Genuinely freed markets won’t make the list of feasible options. That will leave us with mere variations on a statist theme, namely, corporatism. …and the winner will be: Corporatism. (That is, the use of government force primarily to benefit the well-connected business elite.) The loser? The people, who would benefit from freedom and freed markets—markets void of privileges and arbitrary decrees. That’s what maximizes consumer and worker bargaining power and enhances general living standards.”

 

Inspired by The Freeman http://ow.ly/awVAW image source facebook http://ow.ly/awVzi

Antonia Juhasz a USA oil and energy analyst, author, journalist, and activist has published an article in The Nation Magazine depicting the health issues experienced by residents of the Gulf Coast since the 2010 BP oil spill. In the article Juhasz states, “The most toxic chemicals found in oil are lipid-soluble, which means that they accumulate in organs that contain a lot of fat, like the brain. Consequently, those with the greatest exposure can get permanent brain damage, dementia, as a result… In August 2011 the Government Accountability Project (GAP) began its investigation of the public health threats associated with the oil spill cleanup… Witnesses reported a host of ailments, including eye, nose and throat irritation; respiratory problems; blood in urine, vomit and rectal bleeding; seizures; nausea and violent vomiting episodes that last for hours; skin irritation, burning and lesions; short-term memory loss and confusion; liver and kidney damage; central nervous system effects and nervous system damage; hypertension; and miscarriages. … It will take years to determine the actual number of affected people. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), with financial support from BP, is conducting several multiyear health impact studies, which are only just getting under way.”

 

Inspired by The Nation http://ow.ly/awUs6 image source Twitter http://ow.ly/awUHv

Matthew “Matt” O’Brien the USA author and journalist has published an article in The Atlantic citing ‘Spain Is Doomed: Why Austerity Is Destroying Europe’. In the article O’Brien states “Nearly a quarter of Spain’s population is unemployed. Half of its youth are out of work. And it’s only going to get worse. Spain is supposed to trim its deficit by some 5.5 percent of GDP over the next two years. That’s not a recipe for growth. Just ask the IMF, which downgraded its projections for Spain’s economy back in January. What matters for a nation is its GDP. That’s a country’s equivalent of personal income. If Spain’s GDP is set to fall for the foreseeable future — and it is — then who would want to lend to Spain? The markets gave their answer — practically nobody! — and ECB was forced to fill the void by giving Eurobanks free money to then invest in sovereign debt. Yields came down. European policymakers declared “Mission Accomplished.” …Rather than consider the possibility that the economy might work differently than they think, they have settled on a simple message: The beatings will continue. Unfortunately, morale will continue to not improve. Eventually, you have to think leaders in Europe’s beat-up countries will begin to wonder if life might be better outside the euro zone.”

 

Inspired by The Atlantic http://ow.ly/awRxF image source Business Insider http://ow.ly/awRvH

Michael Lewis the 51 year old USA non-fiction author and financial journalist has published an article on The Daily Beast interviewing himself ‘about how to make the Occupy Wall Street movement better – His strategy: boycott the banks!’ In the article Lewis states, “The big complaint about the movement is that it doesn’t know what it wants. If someone put you in charge of the movement, what would you have it do? I’m not certain that they’re wrong to be as woolly-minded about their goals as they seem to be. By not being too explicit about what they want, they attract anyone who is upset about anything. But if I were in charge I would probably reorganize the movement around a single, achievable goal: a financial boycott of the six “ too big to fail ” Wall Street firms: Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo. We would encourage people who had deposits in these firms to withdraw them, and put them in smaller, not “too big to fail” banks. We would stigmatize anyone who invested, in any way, in any of these banks. I’d try to organize college students to protest on campuses. Their first goal would be to force the university endowments to divest themselves of shares in these banks.”

 

Inspired by The Daily Beast http://ow.ly/awNlr image source Justin Hoch http://ow.ly/awNjr

Michael Hastings the 32 year old USA journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine renowned for his profile story of General Stanley McChrystal the then commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has published an article titled ‘The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret, an inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight” In the article Hastings states, “Drones offer the government an advanced and precise technology in its War on Terror – yet many of those killed by drones don’t appear to be terrorists at all. In fact, according to a detailed study of drone victims compiled by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, at least 174 of those executed by drones were under the age of 18 – in other words, children. Estimates by human rights groups that include adults who were likely civilians put the toll of innocent victims at more than 800. U.S. officials hotly dismiss such figures – “bullshit,” one senior administration official told me. Brennan, one of Obama’s top counterterrorism advisers, absurdly insisted last June that there hadn’t been “a single civilian” killed by drones in the previous year.”

 

Inspired by Rolling Stone http://ow.ly/avkUM image source ctv http://ow.ly/avlO8

Jason Hickel a USA Anthropologist specializing in democracy, violence, globalization, and ritual has published an article on Sham Media speaking of today’s dominant economic ideology ‘ neoliberalism’ being taken for granted as natural and inevitable.  In the article Hickel states “In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher had to convince people that there was “no alternative” to neoliberalism.  Today, this assumption comes ready-made; it’s in the water, part of the common-sense furniture of everyday life, and generally accepted as given by the Right and Left alike.  But it has not always been this way.  Neoliberalism has a specific history, and knowing that history is an important antidote to its hegemony, for it shows that the present order is not natural or inevitable, but rather that it is new, that it came from somewhere, and that it was designed by particular people with particular interests. If an economist living in the 1950s had seriously proposed any of the ideas and policies in today’s standard neoliberal toolkit, they would have been laughed right off the stage. At that time pretty much everyone was a Keynesian, a social democrat, or some shade of Marxist. … neoliberal policy is directly responsible for declining economic growth and rapidly increasing rates of social inequality – both in the West and internationally.”

 

Inspired by Jason Hickel http://ow.ly/anIJb image source Sham Media http://ow.ly/anJps

Robert Costanza the 61 year old USA ecological economist and professor of sustainability has published an article on Aljazeera questioning what we can expect from Rio+20, arguing “We should engage in a global dialogue to envision the future we want – and devise an adaptive strategy to get us there.” In the article Costanza states, “…Rio+20 may be the most critical and potentially most influential meeting of its kind ever. What would have to happen for this to occur? In a nutshell, our view of the world will have to change. Our fundamental goals will have to change from an unsustainable emphasis on economic growth to a much broader vision of human well-being that acknowledges our dependence on nature and on each other. …The ongoing financial crisis, the climate crisis, the crisis of well-being and happiness and the Occupy movement, all represent accumulating trends. The Rio+20 meeting could be the trigger to get off the growth bandwagon and start down the path to a more positive vision of the world we all want… We may have to wait for deeper crises, for a more severe collapse. I hope not. While it is not wise to raise expectations too high, it is also not wise to give up hope. Let us hope for the best.”

 

Inspired by Robert Costanza http://ow.ly/anDTS image source Eppyie http://ow.ly/anEi6

Allison Margaret Kilkenny the 28 year old USA social critic has published an article on The Nation speaking to the ‘Spring Awakening’ resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement and Tax Day protesters taking to the streets in New York City. In the article, Kilkenny states ”It’s time for the big banks and corporations to pay their share of taxes like the rest of us do. …the major corporations and 1 percenters pay little to nothing in taxes. Though the right’s favorite talking point is that America has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world at 35 percent, this doesn’t take into account corporations’ tax-evading practices. The S&P is home to 115 companies that receive more in credits than they pay out. It is this unbalanced system—where extremely wealthy individuals and corporations reap the rewards of rigging the US political system and tax code, while poor people are forced to sacrifice their already meager means… Meanwhile, it seems as though the financial elite simply don’t understand what this chatter about loopholes and tax-dodging is all about.”

 

Inspired by Allison Kilkenny http://ow.ly/anD9h image source netrootsny http://ow.ly/anD1L

Willard Mitt Romney the 65 year old US businessman, politician and 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate and likely nominee has been profiled by Bob Abeshouse on Aljazeera on the likely effect of his being Mormon on his race for the White House. Abeshouse states, “…a significant minority say that they would think twice about voting for a Mormon as president. Evangelical Christians are especially concerned, with some believing that Mormonism is more a cult than a mainstream Christian creed. Others fear a Romney administration would be unduly influenced by the church’s attitude to such matters as polygamy, gay rights and abortion… Evangelical Christians in the US have had a long competition with Mormons for converts. Evangelicals regard the idea that humans can progress to godhood as blasphemous, and take issue with many Mormon practices and doctrines, such as so-called endowment rites. In these temple rituals Mormons pass between rooms representing different stages of the eternal progression they believe all humans participate in – from the Garden of Eden to the earthly world to celestial heaven… Romney has done his best to avoid all discussion of his Mormon faith in the 2012 race. …his Mormonism could be “the x-factor” that costs him the election in a tight race against Barack Obama for the White House in November.”

 

Inspired by Bob Abeshouse http://ow.ly/ahSNs image source Gage Skidmore http://ow.ly/ahSFr

Sweta Vohra the US producer of FaultLines at Al-Jazeera English from Washington DC has published an article with Jordan Flaherty on the history of an occupation, referencing how the OWS movement went from a small group of NYC protestors to a broader people’s movement. The article states, ”When people gathered in Zuccotti Park on September 17, the anger at corporate greed was a unifying call. This was a protest that in large part was about shifting power from the wealthy to the many. It was a mostly white crowd, but it sought to incorporate a wide range of voices. The economic crisis in the US had made the white middle class question their future. Soaring unemployment rates, suffocating student loan debt, and thousands of foreclosures began to close in. This reality propelled the Occupy movement forward. And many feel that the presence of so many relatively privileged white people brought increased media attention and public sympathy. Organisers told us they immediately saw the next step as needing to raise awareness among the many young people new to activism that came flocking to occupations.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera http://ow.ly/a82q5 image source twitter http://ow.ly/a82Ep

Maurizio Seracini the US diagnostician of Italian art specializing in non destructive analyses of art and architecture is investigating the whereabouts of a lost Leonardo da Vinci fresco, possibly hidden behind another wall painting in Florence. Seracini has adopted medical and military technologies to conduct diagnostics of art with minimal destruction of the artwork itself. Kate Deimling has published an article on ArtInfo, stating “…after receiving permission from Florentine authorities, Seracini and his team drilled six holes in the wall painting that may conceal da Vinci’s “Battle of Anghiari.” …to insert endoscopic probes and search behind it. …locations were chosen that were cracked or previously restored, so that there would be no damage to Vasari’s original work. …analysis of red, beige, and black pigment samples retrieved by the probes suggests that they are traces of paint, and the black material in particular shows “a chemical composition similar to black pigment found in brown glazes on Leonardo’s ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘John the Baptist.’” Diemling in her article discusses the significant opposition Seracini and his backers are confronting from various scholars and researchers in the quest to locate the missing work after 450 years.

 

Inspired by Kate Deimling http://ow.ly/a6XSH image source Wikimedia http://ow.ly/a6XKq

Angela Dorothea Merkel the 56 year old first female Chancellor of Germany and former head of the European Council, announced via Steffen Seibert her press secretary’s twitter account, a planned trip to the USA. The method of announcement via twitter has created great angst among the German press corps demanding to know if future announcements from the Chancellor’s office will similarly be made public via twitter. Apparently many of the press corps do not have twitter accounts and still rely on dinosaur technology such as facsimile machines to receive their press release information. Merkel had agreed to the use of twitter technology given the lead taken by other progressive governments around the world, to announce this official visit to the USA to meet with President Obama. Inspired by Sam Stein ow.ly/4ym2l image source Wikipedia ow.ly/4ymeY Why don’t you send a fax? (April 13 2011)

Angela Dorothea Merkel the 56 year old first female Chancellor of Germany and former head of the European Council, announced via Steffen Seibert her press secretary’s twitter account, a planned trip to the USA. The method of announcement via twitter has created great angst among the German press corps demanding to know if future announcements from the Chancellor’s office will similarly be made public via twitter. Apparently many of the press corps do not have twitter accounts and still rely on dinosaur technology such as facsimile machines to receive their press release information. Merkel had agreed to the use of twitter technology given the lead taken by other progressive governments around the world, to announce this official visit to the USA to meet with President Obama.

 

Inspired by Sam Stein ow.ly/4ym2l image source Wikipedia ow.ly/4ymeY

This digital work is premised on the basis that Pop art in its beginnings, freeze-framed what consumers of popular culture experienced into iconic visual abstractions. With the advent of the techno age, visual information circulates in such quantities, so rapidly and exponentially, that to comprehend a fraction of it all becomes a kind of production process in itself.  Hence this work considers fragmented elements of Pop Culture through an artistic and conceptual exploration of specific people and events of the day.

www.ianbunn.com

Rss Feed Tweeter button Facebook button Technorati button Reddit button Myspace button Linkedin button Delicious button Digg button Flickr button Stumbleupon button Newsvine button Youtube button