Black Agenda Report, January 23, 1019 “If Laquan McDonald had murdered this policeman, filling his body with 16 shots, he would have gotten a life sentence, no doubt. He would have received the death penalty if the state hadn't abolished it because the press uncovered how many innocent people had been executed. The entire city of [...]
Truthdig, January 11, 2019 As the United States lurches toward its 2020 presidential election cycle, it is useful to revisit the central tension of Donald Trump’s presidency. I’m speaking, of course, about his phony populism and the politico-financial establishment’s utter contempt for his political ascent. As the Democratic field slowly takes shape, the question now [...]
Counterpunch, January 11, 2019 My fellow U.S.-Americans, we stand at a moment of no small peril. Yes, the whole stunt is built on a fetid pile of falsehoods. The level of bullshit emanating from Trump’s mouth and Twitter feed on this matter is remarkable even by his standards. There is NO reasonable argument for constructing [...]
Counterpunch, January 8, 2019 It’s always interesting when members of the ruling-class reveal their cluelessness about the lives of ordinary working people. Sometimes it can cost them dearly in the political realm. The late George H.W. Bush famously expressed amazement as president over the workings of an electric scanner in a grocery check-out line. In [...]
Counterpunch, January 4, 2019 Remembering Bernie Sanders at Prairie Lights In late 2014 Bernie Sanders came out to Iowa City to speak before a large and enthusiastic crowd at that university town’s venerable independent Prairie Lights Bookstore. It was part of his exploration before finally committing to running for the U.S. presidency as a Democrat. [...]
Truthdig, December 26, 2018 The dog whistle couldn’t have been any clearer. When Donald Trump said two weeks ago that “the people would revolt” if he were impeached, his extremist base of neo-Nazis, Klan members, right-wing militias and sympathetic service members likely heard the following: “Feel free to attack Democrats, liberals, leftists and progressives if [...]
Counterpunch, December 21, 2018 Left v. Right Populism Two very different “populisms” that have arisen in response to neoliberal capitalism in the West. A left-leaning social-democratic “progressive populism” targets the capitalist concentration of wealth and power and the unbridled pursuit of private profit as enemies of the people and the common good. This populism is egalitarian and [...]
Counterpunch, December 12, 2018 The deletion of events that don’t fit with the reigning ideology is part of how ruling class-owned media works to manufacture mass consent to unjust hierarchy. I spent much of last week in a cable-television-equipped U.S.-American apartment with CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News at my fingertips. As I inhabited this abode, [...]
Truthdig, December 11, 2018 When it comes to criticizing the Democratic Party, nothing speaks like experience within the belly of the beast. Ralph Nader is living proof. After years of effectively pressuring congressional Democrats to protect consumers and the environment against corporate greed, he watched firsthand as the party bowed to the demands of Big [...]
Counterpunch, December 7, 2018 The prolonged nationally televised commemorations of the racist, corporatist, and imperialist killers John McCain and George H.W. Bush – both privileged sons of the United States military industrial complex – have been nauseating for any decent and historically knowledgeable human being to behold. But the national rituals attached to the deaths [...]