Counterpunch, January 28, 2019 Idle Capital Through Disruption As the partial federal shutdown moved into its third week, I found myself thinking about the late left economist and sociologist Giovanni Arrighi’s concept of “workplace bargaining power” (WBP). By WBP, Arrighi meant the ability some strategically placed workers possess to idle capital and harm profits by bottle-necking the [...]
Truthdig, January 23, 2019 American telescreens broadcast an endless theater of the politically absurd. Take, for example, the ongoing saga over the government shutdown and President Donald Trump’s border wall that has been playing out on screens across the nation for weeks. Recently, news channels showed Trump telling reporters he can empathize with 800,000 federal [...]
Counterpunch, January 23, 2019 Here are seven things you won’t hear much if anything about in the reigning corporate media regarding the ongoing record-setting partial shutdown of the United States federal government: 1: The Longstanding Neoliberal War on “Big Government”: a proper understanding of the shutdown in relation to the longstanding capitalist project of what the [...]
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 [...]