In reading the transcripts from the post-summit press conferences, nearly every question from the US media was an attempt to goad Biden into making even more belligerent comments about Russia and, once FoxNews got the microphone, China, than he was already inclined to...
Counterpunch
Anti-Critical Race Theory and Neo-McCarthyism
Like many other bills now making their way to law in red states across America, H.B. 327 in Ohio would outlaw what its proponents label as “critical race theory” which they define as teaching that the “United States is fundamentally racist or sexist” or that anyone...
The 50 Trillion Dollar Question: What is Austerity?
The modern system of austerity took shape in the mid-1970s and we are still in its grip. Austerity is meant to trap us in a destructive double-bind; the race to the bottom for millions of people is also the race to the top for the few. The cost? More than $50...
Julian Assange Rots in Jail as U.S. Slaughters First Amendment
Years pass, and journalist Julian Assange languishes in a British jail. His crime? Truthful reporting of U.S. military atrocities in Iraq, reporting that sparked a lust for vengeance among U.S. politicos and military men. With Assange, the American empire would manage...
Angela Davis, America’s Best-Known Black Radical, Joins the Country’s Most Radical Union
This Saturday, June 19th, celebrated among African Americans as Juneteenth, Angela Davis will be inducted into Local 10, the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Happening at Local 10’s legendary hall near San...
That Little Power Elite Moment is Already Over
Concerns over the white-supremacist neofascism of the Republican Party were overblown, a “Marxist” told me last January, because Trump had never won the allegiance of all but a small fraction of the nation’s corporate and financial ruling class. Had I not read the...
How the Federal Government Crushed Racist Organizing
According to data collected by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center), white racist organizing in the U.S. saw a continued decline in 2020 from its peak in 2008, in the pit of the Great Recession. While unemployment skyrocketed due to pandemic shutdowns, the Federal...
Dear PETA, Israel’s Animal Rights Record is Anything but Praiseworthy
Last Wednesday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) praised Israel for being the first country to ban the sale of animal furs. Laws like these are obviously worthy of praise, however, in the case of Israel, any praise, especially regarding its ethics...
Is 20th Century Social Democracy Really the Best we Can Do?
Predictions are difficult to make, especially, as the old joke goes, when they are about the future. Particularly fraught have been predictions of the demise of capitalism. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that because capitalism remains the world’s dominant...
Conflict in the Hinterlands: the Fragmented Geography of the Cold Civil War
When the U.S. had its first great break-up in 1861, the geography was fairly well defined. The core area of the Southern slaveocracy versus the rising industrial North. There were conflicts within the border states that stuck with the Union. “Copperhead” confederacy...
On Trumpism and Netanyahu-ism: How Benjamin Netanyahu Won America and Lost Israel
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is as much American as he is Israeli. While other Israeli leaders have made their strong relationship with Washington a cornerstone in their politics, Netanyahu’s political style was essentially American from the start....
Get Me Water First
Occasionally, you come across an article, a book, or a film with exceptional power to capture your imagination, influencing your ideas or life, or, at least, reminding you of a time when you, too, were obsessed by similar concerns and hopes. This happened to me...