ADDED 03/08/2018
FROM 03/08/2018 | Slate
BY YASCHA MOUNK
He is following the same playbook as other authoritarian populists around the world. He’s just bad at it—so far. A week after the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead and 14 injured, Donald Trump publicly scolded members of his own party: “They have great power over you […]
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FROM 03/08/2018 | Budapest Beacon
BY Staff
“If you don’t have a free and pluralistic press that is conveying messages on different sides of issues and which is actively critical of the government and its policies, then democracy starts to be meaningless. If people are just fed a steady diet of pro-government propaganda by media sources either controlled by the government or […]
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ADDED 03/08/2018
FROM | The Economist
BY Bagehot
British institutions may not withstand the authoritarian-populist wave. IN HIS dystopian novel of 1935, “It Can’t Happen Here”, Sinclair Lewis described the rise of an American Caesar, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip. Buzz easily defeats Franklin Roosevelt for the presidency by promising to make America great again. He then sets about destroying the country’s system of checks […]
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ADDED 03/05/2018
FROM 02/28/2018 | Jacobin
BY MIYA TOKUMITSU
A hundred years ago, the United States adopted daylight savings time in order to extract more profit from labor. How would we organize time differently if we were free from the demands of capitalism? Forget Karl Marx’s old saw about hunting in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, and criticizing after dinner — for many, […]
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ADDED 03/05/2018
FROM | The Guardian
BY Gavin Evans
Its defenders claim to be standing up for uncomfortable truths, but race science is still as bogus as ever. One of the strangest ironies of our time is that a body of thoroughly debunked “science” is being revived by people who claim to be defending truth against a rising tide of ignorance. The idea that […]
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ADDED 03/04/2018
FROM | Middle East Eye
BY Alex MacDonald
Iraqi Communist party leaders hail possibility of end of sectarian and ethnic coalitions in war-ravaged country. It is perhaps the most unlikely of political alliances, even for a country where electoral rules encourage strange bedfellows. As Iraq prepares for its first post-Islamic State elections, the Communists have thrown their lot in with the Shia conservatives […]
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ADDED 03/02/2018
FROM | The Atlantic
BY Rachel Donadio
MILAN—The same day that left-wing groups and parties held an anti-fascist rally in Rome, protesting the apparent rise of the hard-right in Italy, the piazza in front of the Milan cathedral was filled with energized supporters of Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s League party. The party is best known for its xenophobia and its flirtation with […]
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ADDED 02/27/2018
FROM 02/26/2018 | Carnegie Europe
BY RICHARD YOUNGS, SARAH MANNEY
This is the first article of the Reshaping European Democracy Project, an initiative of Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law Program and Carnegie Europe. There is widespread agreement that liberal democracy is in fragile health in its European heartlands. Freedom House’s recently published 2018 report, “Democracy in Crisis,” suggests liberal democratic values are now at serious […]
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ADDED 01/19/2018
FROM |
BY
Author Jeff Halper says the usual explanations of Israel’s behavior didn’t make sense to him. In June, Israelis and Palestinians marked the 48th anniversary of the Six Day War, and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that began in its aftermath. President Obama has admitted that he doesn’t expect to see an end to […]
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