Z Nightly Commentaries
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Blum: Zinn & Haiti
Feb 09, 2010
Progressive activists and writers continually bemoan the fact that the news they generate and the opinions they express are consistently ignored by the mainstream media, and thus kept from the masses of the American people. This disregard of progressive thought is tantamount to a definition of the mainstream media. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy; it's a matter of who owns the mainstream media and the type of journalists they hire - men and women who would like to keep their jobs; so it's more insidious than a conspiracy, it's what's built into the system, it's how the system works. The disregard of the progressive world is of course not total; at times some of that world makes too good copy to ignore, and, on rare occasions, progressive ideas, when they threaten to become very popular, have to be countered.
Kagarlitsky: "Freedom"
Feb 08, 2010
If freedom is defined by a state’s non-participation in economic processes, as the Heritage Foundation suggests, then Haiti today would win first prize, as after the earthquake, it has no government at all.
Glick: Following Howard Zinn
Feb 07, 2010
Feburary 1st, 2010 was the 50th anniversary of the student sit-in at a white’s only, Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. that sparked the 60’s civil rights movement. I suspect that those four brave students, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond, had no idea that their action would be the spark that it was. I suspect that they did what they did because it was the right thing to do and because of people and events that influenced them to the point where they felt the strength to take this very real risk.
Quigley: Haiti Still Starving
Feb 06, 2010
You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti.
Vltchek: Chile
Feb 05, 2010
President Salvador Allende once again overlooks baroque Presidential Palace La Moneda in the heart of Santiago de Chile. This time his body is not made of flesh and bones but of stone - he is nothing more than a statue - but his head is still high, his eyes are fixed towards the future and it seems that he is marching forward surrounded by his stunningly beautiful country.
Abu-jamal: Howard Zinn, Master Historian
Feb 04, 2010
It should surprise no one when a man, nearly 90, dies. It is as natural as moonlight, as regular as a rainbow after a summer shower.
Landau: Universal Disorientation
Feb 03, 2010
Look at the front page of the New York Times (Jan 17)... and you'd swear that chaos and violence are running rampant in Haiti, that everyone from journalists to relief workers must be risking their necks just to venture out into the streets... Then listen to the audio feed from the same Times reporters... It turns out there are just a few pockets and a small number of vandals at work. The overwhelming majority of Haitians are attempting to survive without trashing their stores and knifing each other over welfare supplies. Even more ironic, the Times audio report says that fears of such violence are playing a part in delaying the aid effort, with relief workers leery of possible danger. Unfortunately the Times itself, by playing the sensational photos...is itself putting out a badly distorted picture of what is actually going on.
Wallerstein: US Misreads Brazil
Feb 02, 2010
When the United States first realized circa 1970 that its hegemonic dominance was being threatened by the growing economic (and hence geopolitical) strength of western Europe and Japan, it changed its posture, seeking to prevent western Europe and Japan from taking too independent a position in world affairs.
Zinn: A Marvelous Victory
Feb 01, 2010
American historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn died January 27, 2010, aged 87. Below is an excerpt from his recent book A Power Governments Cannot Suppress published by City Lights Books.
Monbiot: Arrest Tony Blair
Jan 31, 2010
Wanted: Tony Blair for war crimes. Arrest him and claim your reward
Abu-jamal: Haiti's Suffering
Jan 30, 2010
As we near two weeks after the devastating earthquake and terrifying aftershocks in Port-au-Prince and Zacmel, Haiti, we face the inevitable media wall, that closes up, unless a story emerges of such surprise and delight that it's able to shine through.
Street: The People's Historian
Jan 29, 2010
The news of Howard Zinn's death hit me like a ton of bricks. I did not expect to cry and then about 10 minutes after getting the e-mail…it hit me - three times. The last time I looked down and saw that I was standing in my den about one foot away from one of my old "instructors' copies" of Zinn's masterpiece, A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present.
Bohmer: Howard Zinn Presente
Jan 29, 2010
Comments on Howard Zinn
Pilger: Kidnapping of Haiti
Jan 28, 2010
The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured "formal approval" from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to "secure" roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.
Sharma: Farming to Sustain the World
Jan 27, 2010
Ten years from now, in 2020, when we try to look back, Indian agriculture can be transformed into a healthy and vibrant system where farmer suicides have been relegated to history, where distress and despondency has been replaced by the lost pride in farming, where agriculture becomes sustainable in the long run, and does not add on to global warming.
Jensen: Media Failures in Haiti
Jan 26, 2010
CNN's star anchor Anderson Cooper narrates a chaotic street scene in Port-au-Prince. A boy is struck in the head by a rock thrown by a looter from a roof. Cooper helps him to the side of the road, and then realizes the boy is disoriented and unable to get away. Laying down his digital camera (but still being filmed by another CNN camera), Cooper picks up the boy and lifts him over a barricade to safety, we hope.
Cohen: Toxic Wastes & Haiti
Jan 25, 2010
Two decades ago, the garbage barge, the Khian Sea, with no place in the U.S. willing to accept its garbage, left the territorial waters of the United States and began circling the oceans in search of a country willing to accept its cargo: 14,000 tons of toxic incinerator ash. First it went to the Bahamas, then to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Bermuda, Guinea Bissau and the Netherlands Antilles. Wherever it went, people gathered to protest its arrival. No one wanted the millions of pounds of Philadelphia municipal incinerator ash dumped in their country.
Glick: Upping the Ante on Climate
Jan 24, 2010
Just about one year ago, Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. Hopes were high among progressive-minded people, including climate activists. Finally, we had a President who got it on the need for action to address the deepening climate crisis.
Abu-jamal: More 'Bad Intel'?
Jan 23, 2010
The recent near miss on Christmas Day in Detroit, has sparked a presidentially-mandated reappraisal of the failures of American intelligence which made this disaster so possible.
Landau: Magical Realism
Jan 22, 2010
For U.S. magical realists, a coup becomes a coup after Washington defines it as such. On March 10, 1952, Cuban General Fulgencio Batista grabbed power and sought to legitimize his coup by holding fake elections. Magically, the coup makers won; Washington recognized Batista.
Blum: Zinn & Haiti
Feb 09, 2010
Progressive activists and writers continually bemoan the fact that the news they generate and the opinions they express are consistently ignored by the mainstream media, and thus kept from the masses of the American people. This disregard of progressive thought is tantamount to a definition of the mainstream media. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy; it's a matter of who owns the mainstream media and the type of journalists they hire - men and women who would like to keep their jobs; so it's more insidious than a conspiracy, it's what's built into the system, it's how the system works. The disregard of the progressive world is of course not total; at times some of that world makes too good copy to ignore, and, on rare occasions, progressive ideas, when they threaten to become very popular, have to be countered.