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Elon Musk plans to profit from Twitter, not create a town square for global democracy
The world’s richest man has bought one of the world’s most popular social media platforms. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is currently worth about $210 billion, and in November 2021 he was worth nearly $300 billion—an unheard-of figure for any individual in human history. Not only does his wealth bode ill for democracy, considering the financial influence that he has over politics, but his acquisition of Twitter, a powerful opinion platform, as a private company also further cements his power. Continue reading
New Senate report spotlights ‘barbaric consequences’ of GOP abortion bans
"Republicans' crusade against women's reproductive freedoms has created national chaos that is a mortal threat to women's health."
Four months after the right-wing majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Sen. Elizabeth Warren led several Democratic lawmakers Tuesday in sharing a comprehensive look at the effects of the state-level attacks on reproductive care that the ruling set in motion. Continue reading
Does the U.S. chip ban on China amount to a declaration of war in the computer age?
The United States has gambled big in its latest across-the-board sanctions on Chinese companies in the semiconductor industry, believing it can kneecap China and retain its global dominance. From the slogans of globalization and “free trade” of the neoliberal 1990s, Washington has reverted to good old technology denial regimes that the U.S. and its allies followed during the Cold War. While it might work in the short run in slowing down the Chinese advances, the cost to the U.S. semiconductor industry of losing China—its biggest market—will have significant consequences in the long run. In the process, the semiconductor industries of Taiwan and South Korea and equipment manufacturers in Japan and the European Union are likely to become collateral damage. It reminds us again of what former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.” Continue reading
This is the election you get for nine billion bucks
The polls are tightening up right now, and the media is treating it like it’s some mystical force of nature causing people to shift their concerns from abortion, guns, climate, democracy, and the survival of Social Security over to gas prices, Black crime, banning books, and trans kids playing sports. Continue reading
Election 2022: Republican takeover blueprint endangers Social Security, Medicare
WASHINGTON—Remember Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America,” the Republican blueprint for what they’d do if they took over the U.S. House in 1995—which they did? Well, with Gingrich standing by his side in late September, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., unveiled his modernized 122-page version. Continue reading
‘Cold hard threat to democracy’: GOP sowing chaos at polls even before Election Day
"Voters deserve better than this when they exercise their constitutional right at the polls," said one government watchdog.
Government watchdogs are warning that Republicans are operating a well-funded, well-organized campaign to sow “an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt” in this year’s midterm elections by lodging dubious legal challenges even before Election Day arrives and training thousands on how to create confusion at the polls. Continue reading
Think twice before calling the cops: the deadly cost of police welfare checks
Think twice before you call the cops to carry out a welfare check on a loved one. Continue reading
Pan-Turkism’s aggressive dreams of empire—yesterday and today
Turkey’s imperial ambition of creating a Pan-Turkic empire, ruled from Ankara, is on display in today’s Caucasus and elsewhere. Continue reading
There is a sure-fire way to make Roe the law of the land again
Biden promises that if Dems keep the House and gain two Senate seats Roe will once again become the law of the land.
WASHINGTON—If Democrats keep control of the House and gain just two seats in the Senate, something well within reach two weeks from now, there will be a clear path to making Roe the law of the land again and halting the GOP drive to take away a host of other constitutional rights. Continue reading
The depravity of hedge fund ‘journalism’
Who slimmed down your local paper, diluted it with filler, and then doubled the price? Profiteers who don’t care about the news.
Throughout the country, newspaper subscribers are asking questions like: Hey, who took my Saturday paper? What happened to those political cartoons and columns that I liked? Why does it take two days to get election results and sports scores? How did my local paper get filled with filler? Continue reading
Double trouble: Dr. Mehmet Oz and Turkey
TV personality Dr. Mehmet Cengiz Oz is the Republican candidate for U.S. senator in Pennsylvania. He could become the first senator to hold dual citizenship, notably that of Turkey and America. Continue reading
The one thing to know before you vote
Many of the biggest issues affecting our day-to-day lives are determined by state and local officials who are running for office down here—as well as ballot measures. Continue reading
Progressives have but one option on Election Day: Vote to defeat the neofascist GOP
Claiming that there are no significant differences between the two parties is a form of super-ideological gaslighting on automatic pilot.
Six months ago, people on the left in France faced a crucial choice. None of their candidates had gotten enough votes to make it into the presidential runoff election. On the upcoming ballot were the neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron and the neofascist challenger Marine Le Pen, who had trailed the incumbent in the first round by less than five percentage points. What to do? Continue reading
Patriarchy in India is beginning to crumble
In the Vedic tradition of India the feminine side of creation is given equal importance to the masculine. The Divine Mother, Mahashakti, is revered as the primal creative energy who manifests the deities and the physical universe and then sustains all dynamic activity. When portrayed together, the deity pairs—Brahma and Sarasvati, Vishnu and Lakshmi, Shiva and Durga-Parvati—are often androgynous and almost identical to show they are fundamentally beyond gender. Continue reading
Dictatorship in disguise: Authoritarian monsters wreak havoc on our freedoms
We’re living in two worlds. Continue reading
Difficult months ahead: Why Israel is afraid of the Lions’ Den
This headline in the Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, only tells part of the story: “The Lions’ Den, Other Palestinian Groups are Endless Headache for Israel, PA.” Continue reading
America’s death squads: When police become judge, jury and executioner
When I say that warrior cops—hyped up on their own authority and the power of the badge—have not made America any safer or freer, I am not disrespecting any of the fine, decent, lawful police officers who take seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace. Continue reading
What could Donald Trump be thinking about the Democratic Party?
Imagine Donald Trump dining with two of his supposed political advisers. Being an advisor to Donald means you soak up Donald’s political comments and feed them back to him. At this dinner, Donald was spouting off about the Democratic Party. Continue reading
The shadowy network of right-wing money and influence behind Moms for Liberty
The group, which claims to be about “parent rights,” has ties to the January 6 insurrection and is expected to provide “foot soldiers” for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Continue reading
Texas woman’s near-death experience is what GOP ‘hopes to see nationwide’
"It's this simple: If anti-choice Republicans win control of Congress, they will pass a national ban on abortion," said one advocate.
Progressives on Wednesday warned that one Texas woman’s harrowing near-death experience after she had a complication when she was 18 weeks pregnant encompasses the Republican Party’s vision for women across the U.S., as the party pledges to pass a 15-week nationwide abortion ban if they win control of Congress in November. Continue reading
Republican ‘solutions’ will make inflation worse
If cutting corporate tax rates and making billionaires wealthier actually fixed inflation, it would have been fixed ages ago.
My wife and I recently had the tremendous misfortune of needing to buy a car. Car prices, you may know, reached an all-time high between this year and last. Continue reading
Europe under control of the U.S. mafia
Who benefits from the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines which connect Germany to natural gas in Russia? The U.S. has the means, motive, and opportunity and was publicly opposed to the project for many years. Yet the crime victims are strangely silent about identifying the probable perpetrator. Continue reading
Tech billionaires are actually dumber than you think
It turns out that many of today’s billionaires are selfish, lonely men fantasizing about how they will survive the end times they have played a part in creating.
In mid-September, for just a few days, Indian industrialist Gautam Adani entered the ranks of the top three richest people on earth as per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. It was the first time an Indian, or, for that matter, an Asian, had enjoyed such a distinction. South Asians in my circle of family and friends felt excited at the prospect that a man who looked like us had entered such rarefied ranks. Continue reading
Why the GOP is no longer a legitimate political party
US News and World Report has a story about how the fringe has become the mainstream in the Republican Party. The headline of their story says it all: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Rises From GOP Fringe to Front.” Continue reading
Brazil’s Lula remerges—in a very different political world
If Lula wins reelection, he must not only rebuild the social investments that Bolsonaro destroyed, but also restore trust in a nation damaged by fascism’s sophisticated propaganda machine.
Brazil’s first round of elections, held on October 2, yielded a major victory for the man who held the presidency from 2003 to 2010, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Winning 48 percent of the vote in a multicandidate race, Lula now heads to a runoff against incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, who won 43 percent. It’s the first chapter of a dramatic comeback for a leader who was once hailed as the epitome of Latin America’s resurgent left, who was then imprisoned on corruption charges by a politicized judiciary, eventually was released, and has now emerged onto the political scene in a very different nation than the one he once led. Continue reading
Strangers behind the trees: On the death of Rayan Suliman and his fear of monsters
Children of my Gaza refugee camp were rarely afraid of monsters but of Israeli soldiers. This is all that we talked about before going to bed. Unlike imaginary monsters in the closet or under the bed, Israeli soldiers are real, and they could show up any minute—at the door, on the roof or, as was often the case, right in the middle of the house. Continue reading
Election deniers and defenders poised for next phase in voting wars
Unprecedented efforts by pro-Trump Republicans and election officials are targeting 2022’s general election.
Unprecedented efforts by pro-Trump Republicans and election officials are targeting 2022’s general election. Continue reading
Ron DeSantis: Stolen valor, stolen taxpayers’ money, stolen lives
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a lot of things, none of them good and one quite unforgivable. Just as he did in his 2018 race for governor, DeSantis has rolled out a television ad highlighting his “pumped up” Navy service. That service continues in the U.S. Naval Reserve, where DeSantis – who routinely questions the authority of his Commander-in-Chief, President Biden – wears the uniform of a Lieutenant Commander in the Judge Advocate General Corps. DeSantis’s political ad features him wearing various uniforms, including dress whites on which he displays a row of medals along with the Fleet Marine Force insignia. DeSantis, whose collateral duty during active service included that of “Awards Officer,” has made it a point of having his political ad, titled “Honor, Courage, Commitment,” focus on his chest of medals while having praise heaped upon him by his former JAG Corps commanding officer, retired Navy Captain Daniel Bean, now a Jacksonville, Florida attorney. Bean formerly served as a managing partner of the Republican-tilting Holland & Knight law firm. Continue reading
What Social Security should really be paying to survive in this economy
Social Security is one of the most popular and progressive government programs in the United States. But Republicans, who try to obscure their real agenda, are bent on cutting it.
Inflation continues to rise in the United States. Although gas prices have recently fallen since their record high over the summer, the cost of groceries rose by 11.4 percent over the last year, and there is no expectation that they will fall back to reasonable levels. Prices overall have risen by 8.2 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report covering September 2022 as compared to the same month last year. While most working Americans are not getting hefty wage raises to compensate for inflation, seniors will see their Social Security benefits—which are pegged to inflation—rise next year. Starting in January 2023, beneficiaries will see an 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) bump in their Social Security checks. Continue reading
Signs of our times: Space Force anthem and campaign ad countering Nazism in Pennsylvania
There is an old Chinese saying that certainly applies today: “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos” or its modernized version: “May you live in interesting times.” Perhaps nothing represents these bizarre times more than the new anthem recently rolled out by the U.S. Space Force, a creation of Donald Trump that continues to haunt us. The anthem was written by Jamie Teachenor, a Nashville singer and song writer. Its lyrics include a mix of Pentagon jargon like “warfighters” and the Marvel Universe reference of “guardians,” as in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The anthem was the brainchild of the Chief of Space Operations, General James Raymond. The song and its lyrics sound like the intro for a 1960s Saturday morning cartoon. Continue reading
Entering the resistance phase of the surveillance education cycle: Finding ways to protect privacy in schools
In August 2022, two important acts of resistance hinted at a sea change in attitudes toward invasive surveillance technologies. First, New York University’s Brennan Center sued the Department of Homeland Security for violating a Freedom of Information request regarding how the agency utilizes social media to monitor U.S. citizens. Days later, it was announced that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing data brokerage company Kochava for the sale of geolocation information that may violate the privacy of women seeking reproductive health care. Continue reading
Capital punishment places too much trust in an untrustworthy institution
Posted on October 27, 2022 by Thomas L. Knapp
On Valentine’s Day in 2018, Nikolas Cruz murdered 14 students and three school employees at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. More than four years later, a jury determined that Cruz’s crimes made him eligible for the death penalty, but did not unanimously vote to recommend that penalty. That absence of unanimity means Cruz will instead serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Continue reading →