Manifest destiny, the concept coined by newspaper editor John O’Sullivan, a proponent of annexing Texas, called on early American citizens and settlers to claim their right to land from coast to coast. As a doctrine, it depended on the notions that white Americans were morally superior, that these white Americans had a mission to spread our institutions as far across …
Historian describes how right-wing authoritarianism is actually quite an old threat in our country
January 16, 2021 Heather Cox Richardson 961 Since right-wing insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on January 6 with the vague but violent idea of taking over the government, observers are paying renewed attention to the threat of right-wing violence in our midst. For all our focus on fighting socialism and communism, right-wing authoritarianism is actually quite an old threat in our …
10 Things You Should Know About Socialism
Richard Wolfe, 2020, Yes Magazine. Capitalism replaced slaves and serfs with employees, masters and lords with employers. It is no historical surprise that employees would end up yearning and fighting for something better. That something better is socialism, a system that doesn’t divide people, but rather makes work a democratic process where all employees have an equal say and together …
How to reconnect urban and rural America. Also, education…
A Marshall Plan for Rural America, local journalism and local recovery, Launch a new development corporation, to invest in local vision and leadership through long-term block grants at the community level and innovative financing tools that give communities a fighting chance to strengthen and renew their local institutions, economies, and vision. Create a national rural strategy, elevate White House and interagency leadership, and undertake a set of specific and targeted …
Long history: fundamental problems are a bloated elite class, with too few elite jobs to go around; declining living standards among the general population, and a government that can’t cover its financial positions
“There is a very close correlation between adopting democratic institutions and having to fight a war for survival” Nov 2020, The Atlantic, Interview with Peter Turchin, excerpt From the June 2020 issue: We are living in a failed state The year 2020 has been kind to Turchin, for many of the same reasons it has been hell for the rest …
A Crime to Want Something Different: US countering democratic and reformist changes processes in 22 countries with leftist extermination
The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World (2020) Vincent Bevins: The Jakarta Method is rounding up and killing huge numbers of unarmed leftists, in the service of establishing a specific type of social order. By eliminating these people, this potential opposition, you clear the way for authoritarian capitalism at home and the creation …
Reality is a Commons
Our greater understanding of the Earth as alive and interconnected At the beginning of 2020, David Bollier published a blog post on “The rise of a New Animism” (read it here). Recognising the historical problems of animism as a Western-centric concept, Bollier suggests that ‘New Animism’ which “sees the experience of life as a dynamic conversation among the creatures and natural systems of …
Colorado Experience
Colorado Experience is a historical documentary series produced by Rocky Mountain PBS, dedicated to preserving & celebrating the people, events & places that have shaped Colorado. Learn more at www.rmpbs.org/ColoradoExperience Contect online at www.facebook.com/ColoradoExperience Rocky Mountain PBS 26:41NOW PLAYING Colorado Experience: Camp Hale Rocky Mountain PBS226:41NOW PLAYING The Strater: The Hotel That Built Durango Rocky Mountain PBS34:21NOW PLAYING Five Points …
Thanksgiving and mourning, the American “rhetoric of rising”, slipping out of the labor force and more
Thinking about how to take a decolonizing approach to Thanksgiving, we are reminded that for many Native Americans it is a Day of Mourning. Here are some pieces on the erased history of Thanksgiving, suggestions on how you can support Indigenous American communities this year, a few potential Thanksgiving recipes from Native chefs, and an interview with Native author Tommy …
Rio Tinto blasts 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site to expand iron ore mine
By Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian, 26 May 2020 Mining company was given permission to blast Juukan Gorge cave, which provided a 4,000-year-old genetic link to present-day traditional owners This cave in the Juukan Gorge, dubbed Juukan 2, was destroyed in a mining blast on Sunday. Consent was given through outdated Aboriginal heritage laws drafted in 1972. Photograph: The Puutu Kunti Kurrama …