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“We don’t need to cleanse our meritocracy of undeserving people or upgrade our meritocrats; we need to dismantle the whole system. Even when it works, Markovits argues, meritocracy is a primary driver of inequality in America.” The Nation features an insightful interview with author Daniel Markovits, with the central idea that the so-called meritocracy ends up exacerbating America’s unequal society, rather than fixing it.
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When people think of countries in the Middle East, they tend to think of ones that have held prominent spots in recent news stories, like Saudi Arabia or Iran. Tunisia, a country still dealing with the ideology of the Islamic State (IS) is rarely mentioned. As the Middle East Eye reports, Tunisians still have to contend with the threat posed by IS and their regional affiliates, as many larger news organizations don’t cover events in countries where Western security interests are not involved.
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The anniversary of 9/11 brought with it news of the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of creating the plans for destroying the twin towers. The Intercept reports a startling fact that during Mohammed’s trial, the FBI, with the support of CIA, were given access to the detainee, along with several others. Despite this, a Senate committee was told that the FBI was not given access to the detainee.
The anniversary of September 11th is also a reminder of the role that the U.S. has been playing in Afghanistan and the surrounding countries ever since. Most significantly, it reminds us of our current involvement in the region and the lack of action taken by various presidents to rectify the situation. As FAIR reports, national news outlets have taken this approach in a different direction, decrying attempts by Trump to pull some troops out of the country as ‘giving up leverage,’ while also narrowing the topics of debate on this critical issue.
Recent news of the Trump’s decision to call off potential peace talks with the Taliban have startled people the world over. Not just that Trump again decided to side step a chance for negotiations with little to gain, but because people were surprised the talks were scheduled to happen at all, much less at Camp David. Reporting on this issue is Truthdig, with their own take on the issue especially when it comes to why people are so angry about the talks in the first place.
The crisis in Flint, Michigan attempted to spark a national debate about the state of US infrastructure and to bring about actual change. And while the water quality in Flint has been addressed to some degree, cities across the country are still suffering from a similar crisis. As Democracy Now! reports, Newark, New Jersey may be entering a dangerous situation at the moment, with citizens trying to highlight the unsafe drinking water in their city.
Climate change is real. As some governments try to address the issue, many pretend there isn’t an issue. In trying to showcase the issue with some real world clarity, CounterPunch highlights several disastrous hurricanes such as Katrina, Sandy, Maria and Dorian, as examples of what global warming is doing to our planet, and how the US is choosing not to respond.
The concept of anti-trust laws and regulations are something many Americans believe in, but when it comes to execution, that’s where things start to fall off a bit. While that stance is being challenged to some degree with a recent 48 state anti-trust case against Google, as The Real News Network points out, the motivation behind the decision may not be as pure as people would expect.
As tensions between Iran and the U.S. continue to heat up, with the Trump administration doing little to cool things down, there are various side effects being felt in both countries that make the situation less palatable. One example of this, as The Grayzone reports, is a journalist detained by the US for allegedly assisting a former intelligence officer in leaking classified information to Iran.
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Social media has become an integral part of our lives, and with it comes the reasonable fear that giant technology companies like Twitter or Facebook might abuse their power. The Ghion Journal reports that there may be some cause for alarm, as actions taken by sites like YouTube and Twitter have started to do just that, banning accounts that happen to be critical of U.S. interests.
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