The Ides of August, approximately

Nouriel Roubini, Slate, "Is Capitalism Doomed?"
Karl Marx was right that globalization, financial intermediation, and income redistribution could lead capitalism to self-destruct.
Posted Monday, Aug. 15, 2011, at 2:17 PM ET

There's something amusing about this story carrying a Goldman Sachs ad. Or maybe it's not the least bit funny.

IOZ, on Ron Paul(and Dennis Kucinich): "Ersatz intellectual diversity superimposed on the public facade of the ruling class is an affect overlying an underlying unanimity among the actually powerful."

Sibel Edmonds has a website,and links to a bunch of other links, here.

Dennis Perrin, "Nietzsche's Abyss"

Rob Payne announces his pick for the 2012 presidential contest.

"You know, this used to be a helluva good country"

Excerpt from Easy Rider[video link]

Yes, Easy Rider is dated. And the idea that long hair represents rebellion seems quaint, because most or all of the signifiers of rebellion and discontent from the 1960s have been co-opted for marketing purposes, to sell perfume or cars or mutual funds, etc.

Ian Welsh, "What the Debt Limit Crisis Should Have Taught You", July 31


Arthur Silber, "Tell Me Again: Who's the Stupid/Weak/Incompetent One?" August 1st


Zachary Karabell, Time: "The U.S. is not drowning in debt", July 15th

Killjoy

Evidently they meant to kill bin Laden. I suspected as much, but felt I should refrain from saying so because the facts weren't all in.

BBC: Bin Laden 'was unarmed when shot'

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor has two different essays justifying discussing the killing of bin Laden unarmed in his bedroom, apparently posing no threat to the soldiers:

Was it legal for the US commandos to kill Osama bin Laden?

Were Navy SEALs justified in shooting an unarmed Osama bin Laden?

CNN: Initial White House misstatements questioned

Juan Cole, Bin Laden an Utter Failure:

I argue that to take full advantage of this political moment, the US must withdraw from Iraq and support the declaration of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

Does Cole believe any of that will happen, or does he just think he should be heard saying that?

a very good essay, by Justin, formerly of Americana:

"An American War Cry"


2 commenters on Facebook from earlier this week:

Judy:
I think they only killed bin laden because the media was sick of the royal wedding.

Laurie:
Well, he may be dead, but Times Square is right outside my window, and I haven't seen anybody "celebrating," let alone "thousands." I saw one broadcast camera yesterday and I couldn't even tell what they were shooting. The media is so full of shit.

Max Keiser, some guy

Meanwhile, I don't know what to think of this guy, Max Keiser. (He calms down a bit in the second half of this video, below):