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From Tehran to Tokyo, U.S. Geo-Strategic Shifts in Motion

Jim Lobe IPS
Washington has an eagerness to extricate itself militarily from more than a decade of war in the Greater Middle East and “pivot” its strategic focus and resources more toward the Asia/Pacific and its highly complex relationships with China and key U.S. allies there.

A Rocky Relationship, Perhaps, But it's One That Has Lasted

S'dumo Dlamini The Sunday Independent (South Africa)
Some have questioned whether the Tripartite Alliance between the trade union federation, the ANC and the SACP. is still relevant to Cosatu. If the government ignores everything we say, what is the point of being in alliance with the governing party? This view is short-sighted. Yes we have suffered some setbacks, just as we did with Gear. But that battle raged for years before we eventually triumphed. It will be the same now.

Banning the Negative Book Review

Bob Garfield New York Times
BuzzFeed’s heroic initiative will succeed even if it merely eradicates the depressing negativity that has for so long kept literary criticism from becoming a full-fledged economic sector, like agriculture, transport and erectile dysfunction.

Down in the Hole (Tom Waits)

 
Tom Waits performs all the somewhat sardonic verses of Down in the Hole, a song best known from the fragment that serves as the musical signature for the tv series The Wire. Find more Alt-Xmas music here.
 

We Are In a Class War

Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese Popular Resistance
Persistence and Solidarity are Key Ingredients