Author Archives: Michael Wehle

Rzhanitsky had three unspent bullets left in his revolver but, maddened by his failure and perhaps, in his agitation, forgetting that they were there, he flung his Browning against the rocks. —Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, (London: Vintage, 2002), 320. I … Continue reading →

Wolfgang Streeck: Before capitalism will be over, there will a long time of crisis, or crises, of frictions between institutions and expectations that no longer fit together, of contested experiments trying to restore the old order or to introduce a … Continue reading →

Guardian: CBS News reported that the US and Israel were planning joint strikes, possibly throughout the weekend, with oil refineries and power plants among possible targets. This line is buried in the middle of the Guardian article. The US plans to bomb … Continue reading →

This reminds me of all the social media comments, many of them likely produced by scripts, in response to posts about Israeli atrocities over the last years. “Just return the prisoners” was used to justify any amount of bombing, bombing … Continue reading →

Electronic Intifada: Israel is escalating its attacks on Palestinians as the so-called yellow line pushes west, expanding the death zone in Gaza; and as Israeli lynch mobs and soldiers enact pogroms in the occupied West Bank with impunity. Israeli warplanes … Continue reading →

Григорий Явлинский: On July 31, 1991, in Moscow, the presidents of the Soviet Union and the United States signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). The historical significance of this event is becoming especially clear now, as we see … Continue reading →

Frankly, I don’t think that political awareness is going to prove the best medicine for our current malady. Most people know that financial dictatorship is destroying their life; the problem is knowing what to do about it. It is possible … Continue reading →