On “BP civil trial opens”

As someone who lives on the Gulf Coast, let me reassure you these bastards are going to get off with a slap on the wrist...after all BP’s quislings yawp and the Obama administration folds....

Keep in mind how this catastrophe ruined the lives of working people here, who rely on the fishing industries, etc., for their livelihoods, which always a precarious thing in the best of circumstances....

Let these people who think things are not based in “reality,” let them come down here and say that....

Don’t be surprised if they don't come back.

Rob M
27 February 2013

On “JPMorgan Chase to cut 4,000 jobs”

This article perfectly illustrates the current problem with unfettered capitalism. It’s not that the big Wall Street banks like Morgan are losing money, it’s just that their obscene profits are declining. But in a system that depends upon the constant maximizing of profit, declining profits are not acceptable. So simply to maximize profits, not to avoid closure of the business, employees are dismissed and the worker is impoverished. How can anyone justify a system built upon such greed?

MZ
USA
28 February 2013

On “Workers rebel against right-wing unions”

I believe in the values and beliefs set out in the Declaration of Independence. These radical ideas were implemented in the US Constitution, to try to make a workable form of government, OF the People, BY the People, FOR the People. I swore an oath of office three times to uphold the US Constitution; I served the People, NOT the GDF government!! I am much more in line with the WSWS goals, but we differ about how to achieve them.

Walter L
27 February 2013

On “The 2013 Academy Awards: Mediocrities by and large, and at their worst”

Congratulations to David Walsh for his excellent article on the 2013 Academy Awards.

With the exception of the award handed to Daniel Day-Lewis, it was one of the most shameful, accommodating and boring ceremonies I have ever seen: the celebration of Argo, Django Unchained and Life of Pi; the fact that Spielberg and Kushner were miserably ignored; host Seth MacFarlane’s bizarre performance and vulgar jokes; and, above all, the appearance of Michelle Obama at the end.

I never cared much about the Academy Awards. How many great films have won it? How Green Was My Valley, Casablanca, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Godfather, The Godfather II, Annie Hall and stop counting. Chaplin, Orson Welles, Hitchcock, Lubitsch, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller never received one. With this award, the industry usually honors itself, not the artists. Therefore, it did not surprise me they handed it to Ben Affleck’s film, a crowd-pleaser which suggests Hollywood is so noble to save the life of a group of US diplomats from a bunch of Iranian fanatics. The Oscar and Argo deserve each other. But for all the reasons mentioned by Walsh, this year’s ceremony was too painful to watch.

Marcelo A
Uruguay
26 February 2013

On “The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall”

This was such an excellent review that I have downloaded the full symphony off YouTube and have listened to parts of it already. The rest will be listened to and watched tonight.

That such developments in art take place in a world full of attempts to divide humanity along ethnics lines is truly inspiring and has the most healthy of aspirations.

Bryan D
28 February 2013