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Bernie Sanders’ Embrace of Bayard Rustin’s Hopeful Message
It was nice to see a reference to Bayard Rustin and his seminal 1965, article “From Protest to Politics” in Professor Steven Conn’s “Bernie Sanders Meet Bayard Rustin” published in the Huffington...
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Slave Masters, Company Town Bosses, and 21st Century U.S. Politics
A very interesting moment occurs during Bernie Sanders’ speeches. We have all heard echoes of it. It pertains to the “political revolution” and the need for courage. He argues that democracy is a...
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Resentment and Aspiration: How Donald and Hillary Explain America’s...
In the first 18 years of my life my parents liked to say that we were part of the middle class. It brought them pride and helped alleviate the pain and insecurity we dealt with daily. That phrase,...
View ArticleThe U.S. Dares to Criticize Israel
It seems that, perhaps, Israel’s latest slaughter of defenseless Palestinians may have been a bit too much even for the United States to condone. In what may be the U.S.’s harshest, although still...
View ArticleThe Alternative to Long-Term Austerity
“A spectre is haunting the treasuries and central banks of the West – the spectre of secular stagnation. What if there is no sustainable recovery of the economic slump of 2008-2013? What if the...
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Capitalist Denial and Climate Chaos
Capitalism is a term that comes fully loaded in the Western psyche. It is a Rorschach test that brings history, ideology and personal experience to the fore. Capitalism is perceived as oppositional, as...
View ArticleWe Don’t Need Climate Marches, We Need a Political Awakening
Last month’s People’s Climate March, with 310,000 people flooding the streets of New York, has been lauded by many as a victory in broadening the climate movement. Bill McKibben, who penned a “Call to...
View ArticleOnce More, Into the Quagmire
More than 191,000 dead in Syria during the civil war. Four to five million displaced. Nearly 3,800 slaughtered in Iraq in September alone. The numbers mount. But America is back on the case. President...
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The Civil War and 150 Years of Forgotten US Military Atrocities
George Orwell wrote in 1945 that “the nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” The same moral...
View ArticleChallenging Drone Warfare in Court
On October 7, 2014, Kathy Kelly and Georgia Walker appeared before Judge Matt Whitworth in Jefferson City, MO, federal court on a charge of criminal trespass to a military facility. The charge was...
View ArticleDeer Hunting in Virginia While the World Burns
“Managing Virginia’s wildlife to maintain optimum populations of all species to serve the needs of the Commonwealth”; – Mission Statement, website of Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries...
View ArticleGetting Bolshie Over the Human Rights Act
“The Tories’ major announcement was to scrap the Human Rights Act, because, and I quote, ‘people get very frustrated with human rights.’” Tim Farron, Liberal Democrats President, The Guardian, Oct 7,...
View ArticleThe Follies of John Kerry
“Look, let me be clear,” said US Secretary of State John Kerry, signaling he was about to obfuscate. “The United States doesn’t ever trade its concern for human rights for any other objective,” he...
View ArticleLatin America’s Recessions: Made in the USA
Three major economies of Latin America—Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela—entered recession in 2014. And in all three cases their recessions may be subtitled, ‘Made in the USA’. After growing at 5% to 9%...
View ArticleClimate Destruction in the Court of Public Opinion
As the leaders of more than a hundred of the world’s governments addressed the U.N. Climate Summit last week, people’s organizations from around the world convened a Climate Justice Tribunal across...
View ArticleTerrorism and Assassinations in Venezuela
Last Friday, the centre of Caracas was filled with thousands of mourning citizens as they accompanied two flag draped coffins loaded with flowers they had cast upon it in homage. If a Member of...
View ArticleKrugman’s Vocabulary Needs an Upgrade
Paul Krugman’s “Voodoo Economics, The Next Generation” does not make any more sense today than it did back in 1980 when presidential candidate G. W. Bush used this term to criticize Ronald Reagan’s...
View ArticleTwitter Sues US Government
The Defendants’ position forces Twitter either to engage in speech that has been preapproved by government officials or else to refrain from speaking altogether. -Twitter, Inc. complaint against the...
View ArticleWhen the Military Brass Turn Pundits
I’ve been concerned about top officers in our military stepping up to the microphone and announcing their opinions on what the foreign policy of the United States should be. For example a few weeks ago...
View ArticleMexico’s Drug War is Killing Children
Many countries prohibit deploying their military for domestic law enforcement: it’s a recipe for violent authoritarian abuse. But the Obama administration’s prohibitionist drug war is funding and...
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