Stop and Frisk: To Serve and Protect American Apartheid
by Andrew Loewen on October 16, 2012
Last November New York City’s billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed the NYPD his personal army, and a big one: “the seventh biggest army in the world.” One of the principle activities of said army is assaulting and abusing black New Yorkers in Harlem. To the tune of 1800 stop-and-frisks a day. American apartheid – like any apartheid – requires much service and protection. This short documentary (14 min) …
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New from The Coup: “The Guillotine”
by Andrew Loewen on October 14, 2012
Many musicians and rappers identify as “political,” but Oakland-based rapper and activist/organizer Boots Riley takes it beyond the pale of decency by insisting on the appellation “communist.” Riley’s primary musical outlet The Coup have a new album. Here’s a catchy track and a cute video with Riley as the scarecrow: “The Guillotine”
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Breast Cancer & Brakhage Strike The Tragically Hip
by Andrew Loewen on October 10, 2012
I haven’t paid much mind to The Tragically Hip (Canada’s biggest rock band of the 90s) in a long long time, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the literate and unfettered front man Gordon Downie. Few staples of modern rock radio raise the intellectual bar of popular culture, but Downie sometimes has (a published poet who references John Cage in songs and has explicitly disclaimed the nationalism that …
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Venezuela: Election Reporting from Below
by Andrew Loewen on October 8, 2012
Controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez causes division even on the political left. Confronted with an endless barrage of fear-mongering commentary and superficial coverage, North Americans seem to widely regard Chavez as a demagogue and dictator, when his popular and legitimate electoral support surpasses that of any leader in the western world. I remember Jon Stewart (who stands for nothing worthwhile and much that isn’t) nearly climbing over his fake news …
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Interview with a Canadian Detainee
by Andrew Loewen on October 7, 2012
Mohammad Mahjoub has been detained in Canada for 12 years without charges. This new interview with him is the first ever recorded.
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42 Saint Bernards
by Andrew Loewen on October 6, 2012
In the temperate rainforest of the Canadian Gulf island of Lasqueti on the west coast. Surreal.
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The Trouble with Obama is America
by Andrew Loewen on October 4, 2012
The web is of course churning with responses reactions to the Presidential debate last night. The consensus is that Romney won by swinging into populist gear while Obama failed to show up. Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive says Obama was “pathetic” (and not just in delivery as is the standard gripe but in message). Big grownups that they are, liberals are licking their wounds by posting pictures of Big Bird …
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Video: Madrid on the Brink
by Andrew Loewen on October 2, 2012
Madrid On The Brink: S25 → S29 from brandon jourdan on Vimeo.
This short film chronicles the events of September 25-29th in Madrid, Spain where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of the government and an end to police brutality. Many of the protests ended in clashes with the police. Since the stand off began on September 25th, the images of
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Uhh Yeah Dude
by Andrew Loewen on September 24, 2012
Uhh Yeah Dude is a popular two-man weekly comedy podcast now 340 episodes strong. Two American Americans taking the pulse of America and finding it fucked. Old friends, comedians Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette (son of actor John Larroquette of Night Court fame and beyond) riff on popular culture – from bullshit television series to Starbucks’ latest horseshit product offerings – and consult opinion polls, surveys, and scientific studies to …
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Will Canada’s Orange Wave Crash Against the NDP’s own Pragmatism?
by Andrew Loewen on September 22, 2012
NDP leader Thomas Mulcair rages against the left. But maybe Canada’s first bearded PM?
Recent polls have put Canada’s opposition party the NDP neck-and-neck with the governing Conservatives. While I have stressed the broad outlines of the NDP’s ideological transition from social democrats to soft neoliberals, Toronto’s Jason Baines has taken the occasion of a recent Ontario by-election (Kitchener-Waterloo) to stress in exacting terms the NDP’s capacity to hoist itself …
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