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Dispatches from the Culture Wars - Seeing Red edition

Portside
Redskins Name Soon to be Retired; First Native America Woman Nominated to Federal Bench; Young Intellectuals Rescue Marx; Government Shut Down Because Civil War Never Ended; Tom Clancy's World-View

Acting with Impunity: The Case of General Electric

Lawrence S. Wittner History News Network
Can the world’s biggest corporations act with impunity? When it comes to General Electric (GE) -- the eighth-largest U.S. corporation, with $146.9 billion in sales and $13.6 billion in profits in 2012 -- the answer appears to be “yes.”

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s the Labor Movement!

Paul Buhle In These Times
Comics have the power to reach beyond political arguments and slogans, revealing true-to-life heroic stories or showing how gains have been made in the past and can be made again. Perhaps now, as organized labor threatens to fade away entirely, the struggle to reach younger audiences may press home the urgency of using comics as a medium to spread labor’s message.

Acting with Impunity: The Case of General Electric

Lawrence Wittner Common Dreams
Although technically a U.S. corporation, GE – with operations in 130 nations – apparently feels little loyalty to the United States. Jack Welch, a former GE CEO, once remarked: “Ideally, you’d have every plant you own on a barge to move with currencies and changes in the economy.” According to a Bloomberg analysis, to avoid paying U.S. taxes, GE keeps more of its profits overseas than any other U.S. company -- $108 billion by the end of 2012.

The Desert of Israeli Democracy

Max Blumenthal Tom Dispatch
An up-close-and-personal report on the new Israel and its grim domestic policies when it comes to who owns the land -- Max Blumenthal, “The Desert of Israeli Democracy, A Trip Through the Negev Desert Leads to the Heart of Israel’s National Nightmare”