”-particularly when they see how former high-ranking Bush administration officials who had advocated for overthrow of Saddam leveraged their government positions, contacts and insider knowledge to make huge fortunes from Iraqi and Kurdistan oil investments. Today, some of these very people continue to sit on the boards of, or have lucrative jobs as advisors to, the very same multinational oil firms.” Continue reading Pipe Dreams-the plundering of Iraq’s oil wealth (Erin Banco):
A rare stray from AACM member Muarice McIntyre from 69. Maurice is a weltering saxophonist who crops up on a few sessions (I forget which ones exactly) here & there, but scorched the steeple black on Richard Abrams superb ‘Levels and Degrees of Light’ debut. This is his first LP as a band leader, & he has conjured a considerable entourage that extols the likes of Malachi Favors, Claudine Myers, Thurman Barker & more from the AACM quorum. Continue reading Maurice McIntyre-humility in the light of the creator CD:
By chance rather than choice, I came across Ma Jian sometime in early 2017, settling on Red Dust, which sounded like a rollicking document of a largely lost China through the eyes of a wayward humanitarian, much like Gao Xingjian’s staggering Soul Mountain (a book of great importance to me). Continue reading China Dream (Ma Jian):
Wow! Pretty stubborn precocity. Its just 1982 & a gaggle of “plastic arts students from Paris” are garbling out harsh, dynamic, extreme-pitch corrosives & aggressive Noise stridency with Industrial relish. Continue reading Le Syndicat-Timespace Losses 1982/1987 CD:
I first went to Indonesia in 2001 to help oil palm plantation workers make a film documenting and dramatizing their struggle to organize a union, in the aftermath of the US-supported Suharto dictatorship – under which unions were illegal. In the remote plantation villages of North Sumatra, one could hardly perceive that military rule had officially ended three years earlier. Continue reading The Look Of Silence and The Act Of Killing DVD (Josh Oppenheimer):
An absolute smasher here. Surfeit, vigorously meticulous & painstakingly crammed, this is a resoundingly impressive repository on these two somewhat exceptional countries & their historic rivalry. Continue reading Cold War in the Islamic World-Saudi Arabia, Iran and the struggle for supremacy (Dilip Hiro):
“candidly speaking, we are not interested in peace, as this concept is understood by the general public. As the ultimate of right-wing messianists, we look forward to the Redemption, to [ruling over the] true Whole Land of Israel, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates … [and] this integrity will undoubtedly be attained through conquest and wars.” – Noam Livnat Continue reading Murder in the Name of God-the plot to kill Yitzhak Rabin (Michael Karpin & Ina Friedman):
ho ho & ha ha. We insist on dystopia. Decline, deterioration, invalidation & expanding disability. Less capable, able, cognizant human beings, but faster & more powerful machines with a continually pervading reliance & prevalence that becomes despotic, as abstaining or avoiding technological/computerized participation becomes practically impossible. Continue reading New Dark Age-technology and the end of the future (James Bridle):
Whacked over the exposed brain with something bristly & barbed. Well roast my spuds on the cob without peeling – it’s “Gunge Hump 101”, the latest fantastical garble from Erst-while Antrum (edition number 22). Continue reading Gunge Hump 101 (Erst-while Antrum 22) – (Kikanju Baku, Mike Forbes, Luke Stewart, Chris Pitsiokos, Weasel Walter, Andrew Scott Young, 极剧动, MindVoid & Miracle Power Combination):
“The real catalyst for the shale revolution was… the 2008 financial crisis and the era of unpredictably low interest rates it ushered in.”
“if companies were forced to live within the cash flow they produce, U.S. oil would have grown at a quarter to half the rate that it has.”
“You can make the argument that the federal reserve is entirely responsible for the fracking boom.” Continue reading Saudi America-the truth about fracking and how it’s changing the world (Bethany McLean):