1968 Analogies The 2008 Barack Obama campaign reminded some hopeful left and liberal observers of the fantastic, feel-good presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK). Like RFK in the turbulent summer of 1968, Obama swept up a considerable number of progressives in the illusion that big democratic transformation, peace and justice could be achieved by [...]

Your new book on Barack Obama is entitled The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power. Can you explain why you chose that title? It is meant to convey the book’s basic theme, which is the continued rule of the unelected and interrelated dictatorships of money and empire beneath the illusory [...]

“So,” people keep asking me, “how did ‘the Tea Party’ do” in last Tuesday’s historic mid-terms elections?[1]The answer: pretty damn good.  It is true that some Tea Party candidates – the best known examples are Senate contenders Christina O’Donnell (defeated in Delaware) and Sharon Angle (vanquished in Arizona) – hurt the G.O.P, last Tuesday. But the [...]

The Republican and Tea Party counter-revolution is on the march.  Faced with a major voter rebellion against his hard socialist agenda yesterday, the Marxist-Leninist United States president Barack Obama has met with Tea Party icons Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, and Glenn Beck and "FreedomWorks" chief Dick Armey....read more

We were recently given a revealing glimpse of how limited what passes for radical commentary can be in the United States during an interview of Sixties radical turned academician Angela Davis on Amy Goodman’s left leaning television show “Democracy Now!” Asked by Goodman for her thoughts on Barack Obama’s election two years ago and “where [...]

"I Like Obama.”  Recently at a reception on a tour promoting my book The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama and the Real World of Power, a young lady from Chicago refused to be photographed with me.  When asked why later, she explained that “I can’t be pictured with Paul Street. I like Obama.” When told of this [...]

“No Matter Who You Put In, It’s the Same Thing”  The Democrats are going to take a considerable hit in the mid-term elections.  The only question is how big their losses will be [1]. A recent Public Broadcasting System “News Hour” report from a rustbelt county in Ohio helps us understand  some of why....At one [...]

Tea Party Doublethink I may throw up if I hear one more pundit refer to the Tea Party Republicans’ supposed demand for “small government.”Like the broader business-shaped right wing Republican agenda it reflects, advances, and re-brands, “the Tea Party” is not actually opposed to “big government.” Yes, the new right-wing “super-Republicans” (as Bloomberg News recently [...]

“I’m Waiting, Sir, I’m Waiting” Last week an assertive middle class black woman named Velma Hart politely but pointedly got in the first black president Barack Obama’s face during a televised town hall meeting. She said she was the near the end of her ability to defend Obama, a president for whom she had proudly [...]

 PREDICTABLE MIND TORTURE The rhetoric of the imperial governing class is so predictable once you know the doctrinal codes. Here’s my forecast – issued on Facebook at around 6:00 pm central time – on Obama’s “end of combat operations” speech from the oval office, delivered with folded presidential hands in a cardboard cutout delivery at [...]