Counterpunch, May 17, 2019 Liberal journalist and author David Cay Johnston, a frequent cable news commentator, was right to title his 2018 book on the Trump presidency “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America.” Trump is a creeping fascist train-wreck – an authoritarian disaster whose lawyer recently arguedin federal [...]
Counterpunch, May 7, 2019 STEP Right Up! Step Right Up! It’s Uncle Sam’s Authoritarian Carnival, Featuring the Amazing American Quadrennial Electoral Extravaganza, the Greatest Show in the World! Narrow Spectrum Big Money Corporate Parties and Candidates! Malevolent Narcissists and Wall Street Sell-Outs Masquerading as Champions of the Middle and Working Classes! Elitism Masquerading as Populism! Plutocratic [...]
Truthdig, May 1, 2019 - a reprint from May 1, 2017 May Day, or May 1, has many meanings, in my experience. When I was a grade-schooler in Chicago, it was the day on which the officially Marxist-Leninist Soviet Union paraded its military might in Moscow’s Red Square. It was a reminder that there was another military [...]
Counterpunch, May 3, 2019 I am as horrified as Paul Krugman at the authoritarian threat posed by Donald Trump and his supporters, but in different ways, with a different understanding. Listen to Krugman’s following dialogue with Anderson Cooper on CNN last week: Cooper: “You write that it’s very much up in the air whether America [...]
Counterpunch, April 30, 2019 I’ve been following and writing about United States politics and society for more than twenty years. I often find that things here are much worse than people want to let themselves think. This is one of those times. The situation is very dire, and we must face it head on. Last [...]
Counterpunch, April 26, 2019 Besides being a grabby old coot who needs to stop joking about complaints over his serially inappropriate touching of females, Joe Biden is a grinning neoliberal sell-out who stands well to the right of majority progressive public opinion. No elegantly crafted three-and-a-half minute campaign launch video on the horrors of Charlottesville [...]
Truthdig, April 24, 2019 No matter what Donald Trump tweets, no matter how his hand-picked attorney general, William Barr, spins its findings, Robert Mueller’s report is a referral for impeachment. Mueller felt constrained by Justice Department guidelines holding that a sitting president cannot be criminally indicted. To make criminal charges against Trump that could not [...]
Counterpunch, April 19, 2019 Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy. I’m not even a big believer in democracy. – Stephen Moore, a potential future member of the Federal Reserve Board The dominant American ideology has long claimed that capitalism is about democracy. It isn’t – and one need not be an anti-capitalist “radical” to [...]
Step Right Up! Step Right Up! It's Uncle Sam's Authoritarian Carnival, Featuring the Amazing American Quadrennial Electoral Extravaganza, the Greatest Show in the World!!! Narrow Spectrum Big Money Corporate Parties and Candidates! Malevolent Narcissists and Wall Street Sell-Outs Masquerading as Champions of the Middle and Working Classes! Elitism Masquerading as Populism! Plutocratic Puppet Shows! Dazzling [...]
Counterpunch, April 12, 2019 Not a False Dichotomy: (Eco-)Socialism or Exterminist Capitalism Antonio Gramsci would be impressed by the “liberal” Democratic Party broadcast network MSNBC, whose function is to advance the political hegemony of finance capital between drug, car, business consulting, insurance, and financial services commercials for affluent Baby Boomers. Last Wednesday the discussion became [...]