STEPHEN LENDMAN—Resolution 273 gave Israel UN membership conditional on it accepting Resolutions 181 and 194, as well as “unreservedly (agreeing to honor) the obligations of the United Nations Charter.” From inception to now, Israel defied international laws at its discretion, showing contempt for the rule of law, brutalizing Palestinians throughout its existence.
AMERICAN STUDIES
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CORNEL WEST—This presidency, he writes, “opened a market” for a new wave of black pundits, intellectuals, writers and journalists — one that Coates himself has benefited from. And his own literary “dreams” of success were facilitated by a black neoliberal president who ruled for eight years — an example of “Black respectability, good Negro government.”
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The Rogue Cries Rogue: Trump’s New National Security Policy
9 minutes readTHOMAS HON WING POLIN—Essentially, Trump said: We’re Dictator-in-Perpetuity on planet Earth, and everyone else must adopt our rules and values. Those who don’t — notably China and Russia –are revisionists working against us. We’ll deal with them. Ultimately, might makes right.
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Actor Matt Damon comes under attack for his criticisms of the sexual misconduct campaign
12 minutes readDAVID WALSH—Damon’s comments were mild, and, in fact, in the course of them, he endorsed the disgraceful and cowardly erasure of actor Kevin Spacey, one of the first victims of the recent sexual scandals, from Ridley Scott’s new film All the Money in the World. The actor called Spacey’s removal from the completed work, which involved replacing the latter with Christopher Plummer and refilming 22 scenes, “smart” and “a total business decision by Ridley.
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NICK BEAMS—It is by no means clear what the effect of the eventual collapse of the bitcoin bubble will be. But, as one questioner reminded outgoing Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen at her final press conference last week, her predecessor Ben Bernanke claimed in 2007 that the sub-prime bubble only amounted to $50 billion and so would not impact on the broader financial system.