Reproductive freedom advocates across Kentucky and beyond vowed to keep fighting after a judge on Monday night allowed the GOP state attorney general to enforce a trigger law and six-week abortion ban. Continue reading
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Kentucky ‘now a forced-birth state’ after judge reinstates abortion bans
"We must codify the right to abortion in Congress," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal. "Pregnant people deserve to make their own healthcare decisions."
How Maasai women are resisting land grabs
In Mwanza, Tanzania, Nairukoki Leyian-Naisinyai tells me that here, “Corporations come with papers from the government claiming that they have the right to our land.” She points to the large corporations that have entered the lands of the Maasai people to mine rubies and tanzanite. The Maasai can neither assert their rights to the land nor benefit from the mining of these precious resources. Continue reading
The weaponization of food
Russia and Ukraine have come to an agreement on food exports. Will the deal hold?
When Russia bombed the port in Odesa last month, it was not an auspicious beginning to the new deal on grain exports. If anyone believed that this agreement between Moscow and Kyiv would have some positive spillover effect on the war grinding on elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian military surely destroyed that wishful thinking. Continue reading
Can a third party “fail Forward?”
Near the end of July, Andrew Yang—whose previous political projects include an unsuccessful run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, an unsuccessful run for the 2021 Democratic mayoral nomination in New York City, and what initially looked likely to be an unsuccessful new “third party,” the Forward Party—announced a re-launch of that last effort. Continue reading
The anti-China brainwashing is working: Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix
If someone criticizing the most dangerous agendas of the most powerful and destructive government on earth looks like “Russian propaganda” or “Chinese propaganda” to you, it’s because you yourself have been brainwashed by propaganda. Continue reading
Alito undermines U.S. in Rome speech mocking allied leaders
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito took it upon himself to mock the leaders of U.S. allies in a keynote speech delivered on July 21 in Rome, Italy. Acting like a mobbed-up comedian performing a churlish stand-up routine on the Las Vegas Strip, Alito lambasted foreign leaders for publicly criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights previously guaranteed by the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. Continue reading
Dark money pouring into secretary of state races featuring ‘big lie’ candidates
"Prominent election deniers have attracted large donations—often the legal maximum—from donors who are active in multiple states," warns a new report.
A new analysis out Monday reveals that far-right dark money groups and donors are pouring millions into secretary of state races across the U.S. this election cycle, far outpacing such giving in previous years and a worrying sign that Trump’s 2020 “Big Lie” has grotesquely altered races for powerful state-level posts that could control the fate of the nation’s democratic future. Continue reading
To reduce inflation, control corporate profits
Everyone’s concerned about inflation these days. But politicians are blaming government benefits instead of rising inequality and corporate profits.
“Inflation” is the new buzzword of the year. It is the reason for the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes designed to increase the costs of some loans. It is the excuse given against renewing the expanded child tax credit program that briefly lifted millions of American families out of poverty. It forms the name of one of the key pieces of legislation that may salvage President Joe Biden’s first term: the Inflation Reduction Act. And, it is the basis of Republican complaints against Democrats heading toward the midterm elections this fall. Continue reading
Nancy Pelosi Taiwan visit could get us all killed
The consequences—far from being only economic and diplomatic—could be existential for all of humanity.
The arrogance of power is especially ominous and despicable when a government leader risks huge numbers of lives in order to make a provocative move on the world’s geopolitical chessboard. Nancy Pelosi’s plan to visit Taiwan is in that category. Thanks to her, the chances of a military confrontation between China and the United States have spiked upward. Continue reading
Trapped in the slaughterhouse
Western civilization is a story of full bellies and starving hearts. Of a feast of information and a famine of truth. Of conveyor belts churning out processed food, conformity-enforcing media and power-serving culture. Enough food to stay alive but not enough sustenance to live. Continue reading
For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing
As Republicans turn back the clock by outlawing abortions—even in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother being at stake—same gender marriages and sex, and access to contraceptives, another right stands to be obliterated by that party that is enacting what the America First Committee, German-American Bund, and Ku Klux Klan could have only dreamed about in the 1930s: a ban on interracial marriage. Continue reading
Chile’s lithium provides profit to the billionaires but exhausts the land and the people
The Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, which stretches 1,200 square miles, is the largest source of lithium in the world. We are standing on a bluff, looking over la gran fosa, the great pit that sits at the southern end of the flat, which is shielded from public view. It is where the major Chilean corporations have set up shop to extract lithium and export it—largely unprocessed—into the global market. “Do you know whose son-in-law is the lithium king of Chile?” asks Loreto, who took us to the salt flat to view these white sands from a vantage point. His response is not so shocking; it is Julio Ponce Lerou, who is the largest stakeholder in the lithium mining company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) and the former son-in-law of the late military dictator Augusto Pinochet (who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990). Continue reading
Europe is at a tipping point, as the abyss is closer than we think
It’s Italy which will fire the starter’s gun on a turnaround on the EU’s policy on Russia and the Ukraine war.
It might well be Italy which marks the starting point of a demise of sorts of the EU, as the coalition government collapses. Mario Draghi, who might be remembering interest rate hikes like the ECB’s this week, which only happened previously when he was the boss overseeing the eurozone crisis, is out. Continue reading
Washington is the problem, not the solution: Why Mahmoud Abbas is seeking new ‘powerful’ sponsors
To judge US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a ‘failure’ in terms of activating the dormant ‘peace process’ is simply a misnomer. For this statement to be accurate, Washington would have had to indicate even a nominal desire to push for negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership. Continue reading
Get Brittney Griner back? Sure—but release her counterparts in America, too
On July 27, the Biden administration offered their Russian counterparts a deal: Release WNBA player Brittney Griner and alleged US spy Paul Whelan, in return for the US releasing Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Continue reading
Welcome to the Anthropocene—can we prevent human die-offs?
The world today is on the verge of a major food emergency, provoked in part by Russia’s attack on Ukraine but more broadly by the damage heat from global warming is doing to crops worldwide. This is both a crisis and an opportunity. Continue reading
‘Beyond unacceptable’: Progressives rip Senate Republicans for blocking birth control bill
"Today, Republicans showed the American people where they stand: No abortions, and no birth control to prevent the need for one," said Sen. Ed Markey.
Democratic U.S. lawmakers and reproductive freedom advocates on Wednesday denounced Senate Republicans for blocking proposed legislation that would safeguard access to contraception as GOP-led states enact total abortion bans in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal. Continue reading
Glen Ford’s irreplaceable journalism
I was very proud to write the preface to Glen Ford's book, The Black Agenda, which published posthumously by OR Books. I endeavored to explain why Glen was truly irreplaceable.
In the best sense of the word a journalist is someone who brings to the public sphere accurate, well sourced information, and rigorous analysis. Those individuals speak for the marginalized, who can’t speak for themselves, and they expose the privileged, who are always given opportunities for expression. They point out the faults of those deemed too authoritative to be questioned. If an outlet claims to write all the news that is fit to print or declares that democracy dies in darkness, their work should be given more scrutiny than credibility. The journalist should be truly independent and skeptical of official narratives. Glen Ford was such a person. His decades of work provide a blueprint for anyone who wants that word to have real meaning and integrity. Continue reading
It’s time to crack down on excessive CEO pay
The pay gap between workers and CEOs at America’s largest low-wage employers is now 670 to 1. That’s obscene.
Working families are getting hammered by inflation while corporate leaders and politicians are calling for belt-tightening. But there’s one group of Americans that’s actually profited from increasing prices. Continue reading
Janet Yellen’s noble effort comes to naught
To end the tax games rich people play, we need more oomph than isolated officials can deliver.
Janet Yellen has spent a lifetime trying to inject a little humanity into the macho male ranks of our nation’s elite economists. This past year, she may have engineered her greatest contribution yet: an epic global tax deal—involving over 130 nations—designed to drive corporate tax havens out of existence and raise billions upon billions in new revenue from accomplished corporate tax avoiders like Apple and Google. Continue reading
Like bad science fiction: The growing danger of anti-abortion extremism
Contraceptives banned. Miscarriages prosecuted. Pregnant people under surveillance. Is this the future Americans want?
It’s January 2026. The Republican president thanks Congress for banning all abortions and makes an enthusiastic plea for a law that would require a national registry of pregnant women, so their pregnancies could be subject to surveillance. Continue reading
Progressives slam Senate passage of $76 billion ‘corporate giveaway’
"Rather than give aid to needy American families," said one progressive group, "the Senate decided to rise to the occasion to cut taxes for already-profitable technology companies like Intel."
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed sweeping bipartisan legislation that Sen. Bernie Sanders and progressive advocacy groups decried as a massive giveaway to corporations such as Intel, whose CEO has been lobbying aggressively in support of the bill’s subsidies for the profitable microchip industry. Continue reading
Mexico’s president gives Joe Biden a big history lesson
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) visited the United States on July 12 and offered five proposals to U.S. President Joe Biden. These proposals are based on AMLO’s in-depth knowledge of Mexican history and his reading of the economic crisis in the United States, which seems to be losing its edge as a global leader. Continue reading
The far right hates ‘woke’ society because they want one that’s asleep
Florida governor and rising GOP star Ron DeSantis has made a favorite hobby of censoring speech and thought.
Although we haven’t even gotten through this year’s midterm congressional elections, it’s still not too early to start examining some of the characters who hope you’ll make them president in 2024. Continue reading
The phoniest, most PR-intensive war of all time
The president and first lady of Ukraine have posed for a romantic photoshoot with Vogue magazine, wherein President Volodymyr Zelensky waxes poetical about his love for his darling wife. Continue reading
Texas abortion ban turned one woman’s pregnancy into a ‘dystopian nightmare’
"Anti-abortion zealots should be forced to read this..." asserted one journalist. "They are responsible for her suffering."
Reproductive healthcare advocates on Tuesday recoiled at a harrowing report describing how one Texas woman’s wanted pregnancy became a “dystopian nightmare” after she suffered potentially deadly complications but was still initially denied lifesaving care under the state’s extreme abortion ban. Continue reading
The WTO opts for greed and profits over providing vaccinations for all people worldwide
The health of all people is being sacrificed to Big Pharma profits and rich countries’ saber-rattling sanctions. Meanwhile, other countries are capable of meeting the world’s vaccine needs.
The UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima had appealed before the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva that the world would face a grim future if patent waivers did not take place. At a press conference, Byanyima had said, “In a pandemic, sharing technology is life or death, and we are choosing death.” Continue reading
The war ‘diplomat’: How Borrell and the West lost the ‘global battle of narratives’
In a blog entry, reflecting on the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia on July 7-8, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, seems to have accepted the painful truth that the West is losing what he termed “the global battle of narratives”. Continue reading
How Amazon, Starbucks, and other companies fight unions
You as a worker have a legal right to join a union, but there are many ways big corporations are skirting the law to stop you from getting your fair share. You could be working for a union-buster and not even know it. Continue reading
The Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t go far enough
The sound of the US Supreme Court’s June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning half a century of abortion jurisprudence under Roe v. Wade, is the sound of multiple cans of worms popping open, particularly in light of associate justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence, which calls for the court to “correct the error” of “substantive due process” by overturning other previous court decisions based on it. Continue reading
The U.S. is a world outlier on abortion restrictions
The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade is part of a pattern of American exceptionalism that harms people in both the U.S. and the rest of the world.
We know the United States is an outlier in abortion restrictions, but it is still startling to realize just how much. Continue reading
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled
Anger is erupting around the world, and people have much to be angry about. Covid, famine, energy shortages, inflation.
Posted on August 4, 2022 by Eamon McKinney
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” This quote is attributed to the French author, philosopher and poet Charles Baudelaire from an article published in La Figro in 1864. It was a time of upheaval and discontent in France, social unrest, inequality, and a return to an Aristocratic status quo after the failure of the French Revolution. It was a confused and divisive time. Baudelaire’s article was seen as a metaphor for the evil dark forces that ruled the beleaguered French people at the time. Baudelaire’s Devil didn’t hide, he was open and was there for those with the eyes to see. Nor did he apologise or explain his evil. This Devil, the very personification of all things evil, was protected by the inherent goodness of the majority. The masses who could not comprehend the level of malevolence that dominated and controlled their lives, regardless of how obvious these forces were. The Devil had indeed convinced the people that he didn’t exist. And so the Devil remained in situ. Continue reading →