The Breakdown of the European Union

Posted on Sep 20, 2011

The demise of the European Union has begun with riots; Netflix is dividing itself in half; meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street protests are starting to get some traction with the mainstream. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

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What Comes After ‘Europe’?
The riots of Athens will become those of Milan, Madrid and Marseilles. Border checkpoints will return. Currencies will be resurrected, then devalued.

Is Netflix As Dumb As It Seems?
The strange logic of the company’s decision to divide itself in half.

Michael Moore, Roseanne, Rachel Maddow on Occupy Wall Street
As we ease into the fourth day of #OCCUPYWALLSTREET—the protest in lower Manhattan against the corporatization of the world and marginalization of the middle and working classes—the movement is gaining a tiny amount of momentum in the mainstream.

Unilateralism and the 2-State Solution
The United States has condemned the Palestinian’s “unilateralism” in seeking recognition at the United Nations, and has threatened to veto it.

Class warfare?
Is Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on millionaires a form of class warfare?

How To Prevent a Depression
Eight drastic policy measures necessary to prevent global economic collapse. None of them will be popular.

Our Economic Nightmare Is Just Beginning
Today’s recession does not merely resemble the Great Depression; it is, to a real extent, a recurrence of it.

Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets
Computer networks proved their organizing power during the recent uprisings in the Middle East, in which Facebook pages amplified street protests that toppled dictators. But those same networks showed their weaknesses as well, such as when the Egyptian government walled off most of its citizens from the Internet in an attempt to silence protesters.

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