Binoy Kampmark – Australia: The Fall of Tony Abbott

You could hear the knives sharpening several continents away.  Malcolm Turnbull, former communications minister, and now Australian Prime Minister, engineered a successful ambush of Tony Abbott as the evening newsfeeds started getting busy.  When the vote came in, Turnbull had garnered 54 votes to Abbott’s 44. The question was one of timing. The Coalition had been registering losses in poll …

Stuart Heritage – Why I’m finally going to boycott Amazon

Few things in life are as universally satisfying as a boycott. To the left, a boycott is the ultimate display of society in action; to the right, it confirms the market’s all-consuming power. To me, it’s just fun. It’s negging, basically – if you love something, ignore it until it comes cowering back promising to do better. My list of …

John Michael Greer – The War Against Change

Last week’s post explored the way that the Democratic party over the last four decades has abandoned any claim to offer voters a better future, and has settled for offering them a future that’s not quite as bad as the one the Republicans have in mind. That momentous shift can be described in many ways, but the most useful of …