Articles Archives | 2ndLook News

28 Feb

Police Killings and Race in the US

Laura London and Stacia Wilson0 CommentsArticles, FeaturedBlack Lives Matter, bodycam footage, Derek Chauvin, discrimination, George Floyd, justice, law enforcement, media bias, police brutality, police killings, policing, race, redlining, Richard Ward, systemic racism, Tony Timpa, Tyre Nichols

Thanks in part to the Black Lives Matter movement, black civilians killed by police have received much media attention in recent years, with victims such as Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner becoming household names. In 2020, riots broke out across the world over the killing of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis when police officer Derek Chauvin performed a neck restraint on him. This incident was widely decried, and some saw it as yet another example of police brutality against black people in the United States, with the image of Floyd becoming a symbol of “the repression, control, and disregard”…

31 Jan

Why the News Is Not the Truth

Peter Vanderwicken0 CommentsArticles, Featured, Government, Republished Article60 Minutes, Clinton, Harvard Business Review, Joseph Pulitzer, media, National Review, New York Times, news, news media, press, propaganda, Pulitzer, Reagan, Wall Street Journal

“Why the News Is Not the Truth” by Peter Vanderwicken, from May-June edition / 1995. This article is reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review and has not been peer reviewed by 2ndLook News. The U.S. press, like the U.S. government, is a corrupt and troubled institution. Corrupt not so much in the sense that it accepts bribes but in a systemic sense. It fails to do what it claims to do, what it should do, and what society expects it to do. The news media and the government are entwined in a vicious circle of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and…

28 Dec

What’s Happened to the US Economy?

Stacia Wilson0 CommentsArticles, EconomicsBRICS, Consumer Price Index, COVID-19, CPI, debt, economics, economy, fed, fiat, fiat currency, fiat money, gold standard, inflation, Inflation Reduction Act, interest rates, just-in-time supply chain model, M1, Milton Friedman, MMT, oil and gas, petroleum, price gouging, recession, supply chain, USD, Wall Street, windfall profits

With inflation reaching the highest rate in 40 years and a recession looming, what happened to the US economy to create this situation, and what can we expect of the future? There are many theories about the causes of inflation. A very basic formula put forth by famed economist Milton Friedman posits that “Inflation is caused by too much money chasing after too few goods.” This article will use Friedman’s formula as a basic framework for looking at the current causes of inflation and then attempt to integrate economic perspectives from various schools of thought, including Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).…

30 Nov

The Greedflation Hypothesis—are corporations price gouging struggling Americans?

Stacia Wilson0 CommentsArticles, Economicscorporate, corporations, economics, economy, EPI, fed, federal reserve, inflation, Katie Porter, price gouging, profits, windfall profits

This year inflation in the US reached the highest rate in 40 years. Are corporations using the cover of inflation to increase prices and make windfall profits on the backs of struggling Americans? Why does whether this hypothesis is true or not matter so much in the current political landscape? https://twitter.com/ZhiZhuWeb/status/1582490041326059522?s=20&t=hT-qqvBlcmdyu9XOcMZ2cQ What is Inflation and Greedflation? Inflation is a measure of how much the price of goods and services has increased over a period of time. Consequently, it means each dollar is able to buy less, and thus is worth less. A simple maxim by economist Milton Friedman states that…

02 Aug

Canada’s Freedom Convoy and the Emergencies Act: A Postmortem

Judith Sears1 CommentArticles, Economics, Government, International NewsCanada, civic order, COVID-19, Emergencies Act, Freedom Convoy, Jim Watson, Justin Trudeau, liberty, mandates, Ontario, protest, Tamara Lich, Trucker Convoy

For three weeks in January and February 2022, a convoy of truckers dubbing themselves the Freedom Convoy shut down parts of downtown Ottawa and some border crossings between Canada and the US. It began as a protest of vaccine mandates and eventually expanded to become a protest of government overreach of all kinds related to COVID-19. The protests significantly interrupted commerce. The Trudeau Administration cited this disruption as justification for declaring a national emergency under the Emergencies Act. With these enhanced powers, the government froze $7.8 million CAD in 201 bank accounts for a little over a week. The flexing…

05 May

Is The Right to Abortion Set to Be Overturned? – Unpacking the Leaked Supreme Court Opinion

Stacia Wilson1 CommentArticles, Governmentabortion, hich legalized abortion in the US, Justice Samuel Alito, leaked opinion, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court, US Supreme Court

On Monday, May 2, 2022, Politico released a (now authenticated) leaked first draft of a Supreme Court opinion regarding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The case is an appeal of a lower court ruling which had struck down a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after fifteen weeks of pregnancy. This Mississippi law conflicts with the Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973 which legalized abortion in the US, and the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey ruling of 1992, which revisited the Roe ruling and eventually upheld it with some modifications. Thus, this Mississippi case has once again…

30 Apr

Inside the Mind of Putin – Russia’s Motivations to Invade Ukraine

Richard Harris1 CommentArticles, International NewsAlexander Nevsky, Catherine the Great, Crimea, history, invasion, Kievan Rus, Moscow, Napoleon, Nazis, Odessa, Orthodox, peace, Peter I (the Great), Russia, Soviet Union, The Cold War, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Yegor Gaidar

Taking Putin Seriously April 30, 2022—for two months Russian armed forces have been attacking Ukraine under the direction of President Vladimir Putin. They have targeted civilian population centers as well as military and strategic objectives. Fathoming why Putin would launch such an assault invites speculation about his motives, his state of mind, and his objectives. It also begs the question of what role a thousand years of Russian history may have played in his calculus. As the great American poet Maya Angelou famously cautioned, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” It is difficult to…

31 Mar

Ukraine’s Identity Crisis – from Independence to Invasion

Nick Ramos1 CommentArticles, International NewsCrimea, Euromaidan, Georgiy Gongadze, Kiev, Kyiv, Maidan, Odessa, Orange Revolution, Putin, Russia, Soviet, Soviet Union, Ukraine

Listen to "Ukraine’s Identity Crisis – from Independence to Invasion" on Spreaker. This article covers: Notable events in Ukraine dating back to the end of the Soviet Era that tie in to current events, including: A culture war driven by language differences The kidnapping of journalist Georgiy Gongadze Leaked Nixon-esque tapes Attempted assasination of a presidential candidate Verified election fraud The Orange Revolution Euromaidan mass protests Foreign powers exerting influence in Ukrainian politics And more. May 2nd, 2014, months of protests exploded into violence in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. Hundreds of pro-Russian protestors battled with thousands of pro-European…

06 Feb

Made to Break: Planned Obsolescence and the Right to Repair

Nick Ramos3 CommentsArticles, Economics, SustainabilityApple, centennial lightbulb, circular economic model, e-waste, Fair Repair Act, Ford, General Motors, Giles Slade, Hewlett-Packard, IKEA, iPhone, mining, Model T, Phoebus cartel, Planned Obsolescence, Right to Repair, style obsolescence, technological obsolescence, waste

This article covers: How planned obsolescence was implemented over a century ago and its effects on our behavior and way of thinking about the products we buy everyday. The positive and negative sides of planned obsolescence as well as recent scandals. Why Right to Repair laws are so important. How planned obsolescence is creating excess waste and using up our resources, as well as proposed solutions such as the circular economic model. Exciting new legislation that was introduced to the House in 2021 called the Fair Repair Act. In 2013, a carbon filament light bulb in Livermore, California went out…

08 Dec

Influence for Sale: How American Politicians Have Been Bought and Paid For

Nick Ramos4 CommentsArticles, GovernmentAndrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, campaign finance, campaign finance reform, Citizens United, FEC, Federal Corrupt Practices Act, Federal Election Campaign Act, Hillary Clinton, Joe Manchin, Joseph Keppler, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice John Paul Stevens, Kyrsten Sinema, Mitch McConnell, money in politics, President Nixon, quid pro quo, Robert Bork, Robert E. Mutch, Supreme Court, Tillman Act, Watergate

In 2000, the total investment in United States federal elections—congressional and presidential—was $3 billion. By 2020, it had shot up to $14.4 billion. Perhaps it’s time to ask what that additional $11.4 billion does for the American people. What’s really being bought? Campaign finance is back in the news thanks to the actions of Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who have spent the past few months blocking the Democratic Party’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in the Senate. When journalists looked into possible motivations for this obstruction, they found money to be a key factor. Sinema raised over $1…

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