Category: The Fifth Column

(EAN) – Since it’s that time of year again, readers with (or without) an interest in the Soviet Union could use recommendations for Soviet cartoons to watch over the holidays that are the antithesis of the usual Santa-Claus fare. An outlet for entertainment, propaganda, social commentary and artistic expression, animation was a huge business in the USSR. Arguably, animated films can tell more about the Soviet Union than some history books. Many of them continue to exert vast cultural influence to this day. The list below attempts to look beyond…

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(Garrison) – Ahead of a vote in the United Nations’ General Assembly on a resolution condemning US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,  president Donald Trump and UN ambassador Nikki Haley threatened states voting for the resolution with the loss of US financial aid. “We’re watching those votes” said Trump. “Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care. But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what…

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(FEE) – What do Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Freddie Mercury have in common? They were all refugees who made extraordinary contributions to their fields. Societies who welcome refugees and migrants benefit from their contributions and the jobs they create. Opening our doors to migrants, rather than detaining them on Manus Island or elsewhere, would make us far wealthier.Detaining Refugees Australia and the West have a troubled history of dealing with refugees, largely because of community concerns about their impact. From the 80,000 refugee visas issued annually…

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Egyptian Activist and Blogger Alaa Abdelfattah. Source: screenshot from Youtube video. (GV) – Egypt’s wide-scale systematic arrests of political dissidents have allowed for full government control over a country of more than 100 million citizens. Orchestrated by Egyptian President Abdelfattah El Sisi, the imprisonment of opposition bloggers and political activists has become daily news, turning justice into a political arena pitting opponents against the regime. The case of Egyptian tech-savvy and political activist Alaa Abdelfattah has recently stirred an outrage because Abdelfattah has been imprisoned since 2013 and yet he now faces new…

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(FPIF) – Viewed one way, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looks unassailable. He weathered last year’s coup attempt, jailed more than 50,000 opponents, fired more than 100,000 civil servants, beheaded the once powerful Turkish military, eviscerated much of his parliamentary opposition, dismissed almost half of the county’s elected officials, and rammed through a constitutional referendum that will make him an all-powerful executive following the 2019 election. In the meantime, a seemingly never-ending state of emergency allows him to rule by decree. So why is the man running scared? Because the…

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(GVO) – The Indonesian Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusional or MK) has rejected the petition of an Islamic conservative group to outlaw extramarital and gay sex. Activists believe the proposal to amend several articles of the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) is aimed at persecuting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The petition was filed by Love Family Alliance (AILA) which asked the court to make a judicial review of Article 284 (extramarital sex), Article 285 (rape), and Article 292 (pedophilia). The group wanted the law to consider homosexual sex as…

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(TFC) – The President of the United States is apparently so embarrassed by his recent poll numbers that he set out to create a poll of his own and then he rigged it. If a voter thought they’d be able to express their true feelings through the “Official Presidential Job Performance Survey”, they would be mistaken. Unless they felt he was doing a “great”, “good”, or “okay” job. Any other feeling would be filed under “other”. There was no option presented to provide a negative response. You can access the…

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(TFC) – With the classrooms filled with technology, students no longer have the opportunities to take basic classes like home economics (aka Home Ec – a class that used to be required core curriculum). But many still feel that it’s important for schools not to let Home Ec die. Why? Because you Home Ec teaches you life skills that aren’t taught anywhere else in most schools. Skills? What Skills? Home Ec class taught students lifelong skills they need to adapt and get by in the adult world. Most employers today utilize…

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(Garrison) – The Goldwater-Nichols Act requires the president to submit a “National Security Strategy” report each year. Every president since Ronald Reagan has failed to comply with the law in one or more years of his administration, but on December 17 Donald Trump issued his report. Unfortunately, Trump’s offering is of a piece with his prior displays of economic illiteracy and foreign policy jingoism. It’s a dog’s breakfast of policy pronouncements that couldn’t be more opposed to real “national security” if that had been the author’s intention. The document reiterates Trump’s commitment…

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Hundreds of identical pro-Putin messages were posted on Vkontakte, a Russian social network; many of the users whose profiles posted these messages are deceased. Collage by author Alexey Kovalev On Friday, December 15, the day after Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference when he finally announced he will run for president in 2018, Vkontakte, a major Russian social network, was awash with messages praising the president. Quotes from the news conference were posted by hundreds of Vkontakte users with the hashtag #ПутинКрут (#PutinIsCool). There was just one problem: many of those…

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