Counterpunch, March 4, 2016 Candidates We Hate What could be more absurd than the longstanding died-in-the-wool neoliberal corporatist and arch-imperial war hawk Hillary Clinton striding up to a victory podium with Black, Latino/a, and Muslim people cheering backstage and signs pasted all around saying “Fighting for Us”? I don’t know…maybe the blustering, white-nationalist real estate [...]
Counterpunch, March 1, 2016 Sometimes the absurdity of the United States’ reigning corporate-managed media and politics culture really knocks me out. If you’ve been following the 2016 Democratic presidential primary race, you probably recall when a corporate media operative (I forget which one but I’m not sure it matters) running one of the televised debates [...]
Counterpunch, February 26, 2016 Listening to Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential debates (recently concluded) this season, one can detect the distinct impression on the candidate’s part that the United States is no longer a democracy because of the inordinate political influence exercised by wealthy campaign funders in the age of the Supreme Court’s arch-plutocratic [...]
“Colored lights can hypnotize,” the Guess Who’s rock anti-anthem “American Woman” (1970) proclaimed, “sparkle someone else’s eyes.” Beneath the hypnotic glow of the endless fake-democratic presidential election pageant, the eco-cidal deep state of capitalist rule grinds on. Let’s look behind the Wizard of Oz curtains a bit to confront two critical stories that have gotten [...]
ZNet and Counterpunch, January 12/13, 2016 Why Hillary Pretends to Love Obama It is well understood in Beltway circles that Bill and Hillary Clinton loathe Barack Obama. They’ll never forgive him for the beating he and his team delivered to them in 2008 or for other slights, real and perceived. So what’s going on with [...]
We are in a state of emergency and it requires a new way of thinking and political independence to stand upnot jut for what we can get but what must have if we are to survive as a human species – Jill Stein, February 3, 2016 “Let us hope that the inevitable first woman [United [...]
Counterpunch, February 9, 2016 “If you’re going to shoot the king, don’t miss,” Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (1505). “The injury that is to be done,” Machiavelli added, “ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote something similar in his journal in [...]
This is a quick, morning after reflection from Iowa City. The Iowa Caucus results were exactly as I expected. Donald Trump got bested by Ted Cruz despite his somewhat higher poll ratings. Of course: The Donald did not have a ground game to match his opinion numbers (gee, imagine that). Cruz was obviously more popular [...]
ZNet, February 1, 2016 Iowa City, Iowa Many corporate media commentators are surprised at the success that the self-declared “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders (actually a social-democratically-inclined New Deal liberal and imperial militarist, something quite different from a socialist) has been showing in polls leading up to the first presidential caucus (Iowa, Monday February 1st – [...]
Counterpunch, February 1, 2016 In Iowa, as across the nation, lots of people work during the early to middle evening, after the traditional dinner hour. Tow-truck drivers. Nurses’ aides. Nurses. Resident emergency room doctors. EMTs. Hotel receptionists. Cops. Security guards. Second-shift production workers. Custodians. Retail clerks. Waitresses. Dishwashers. Butchers at the grocery store. Chicken-shacklers at [...]