While much of the discussion about renewed PH-US relations centers on the military aspect, there is also the equally crucial, if not even more far-reaching, economic dimension of the US pivot to the region By ARNOLD PADILLA IBON FEATURES Bulatlat.com MANILA — US President Barack Obama’s visit underlines the increased bilateral engagement between the Philippines…
Tags: Barack Obama
Unwelcoming Obama: Protests set to hound US President’s state visit
Various groups under the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan are gearing up for a two-day protest for US President Barack Obama’s Manila trip next week.
Do you really want an increased presence of US troops, armaments?
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA — National democratic activists, the bloc usually lumped by mainstream press as ‘the Left,’ have declared the entire week that US President Barack Obama is in Asia as “National Sovereignty and Patrimony Week” in the Philippines (22-30 April). They propose to discuss and challenge what they call as “heightening US…
The nature of the beast
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Before US President Barack Obama canceled his visit to the Philippines and Malaysia, and eventually to Brunei and Indonesia because of the US Federal government shutdown, a group of US Congressmen urged him to include in his meetings with President Benigno Aquino III expressions of US concern…
Obama’s choice
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld With the shutdown of the US federal government, President Barack Obama has cancelled his visits to the Philippines and Malaysia but will still fly to Brunei and Indonesia. What seems to have driven the decision to continue with the Indonesian leg of Obama’s Asian trip is US…
Under the Cloak of Liberalism
America on the Cusp of Fascism By NORMAN POLLACK Counterpunch I use “fascism” here not as a cliché, but as an historical-structural formation principally rooted in the mature stage of capitalism, in which business-government interpenetration (what the Japanese political scientist Masao Maryuma called the “close-embrace” system) has created hierarchical social classes of wide differences in…
Servants and Masters: The Special Interests Won Again
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Counterpunch The election that was supposed to be too close to call turned out not to be so close after all. In my opinion, Obama won for two reasons: (1) Obama is non-threatening and inclusive, whereas Romney exuded a “us vs. them” impression that many found threatening, and (2) the election…
Obama reelection, is there a glimmer of hope?
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
For a US president who was propelled to the White House in 2008 with the largest margin in both popular and electoral votes in 12 years, his struggle for reelection is a revelation.
Globalism’s Perverse Rewards: World’s Apex Bully Leads World Into Lawlessness
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS counterpunch.org The US government pretends to live under the rule of law, to respect human rights, and to provide freedom and democracy to citizens. Washington’s pretense and the stark reality are diametrically opposed. US government officials routinely criticize other governments for being undemocratic and for violating human rights. Yet, no other…
59 Political Killings This Year, The Bloodshed in Honduras: Obama’s Disgrace
By MARK WEISBROT Counterpunch.org Imagine that an opposition organizer were murdered in broad daylight in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador or Venezuela by masked gunmen, or kidnapped and murdered by armed guards of a well-known supporter of the government. It would be front page news in the New York Times, and all over the TV news. The…
Free trade agreements-killing jobs and labor rights
By David Bacon TruthOut News Analysis Last week President Obama broke his campaign commitment and put three free trade agreements up for a vote in Congress. Business interests, ecstatic at the prospect, promise they’ll bring us jobs. Experience tells us, however, their promises are worthless. Nineteen years ago, when the North American Free Trade Agreement…