About the only good thing that can be said about 2020 is that it’s over. It was an annus horribilis. Continue reading
Sections
-
Recent Posts
Terrorism: A menace from the right-wing and allied fundamentalists
On early Christmas morning a vehicle bomb exploded in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The target was the AT&T metropolitan area network hub “Batman” building, a 33-story structure—the tallest building in Tennessee—which resembles the fictional cape crusader’s cowl. The bomber turned out to be a 63-year-old white man. Anthony Quinn Warren, who blew himself up in the terrorist attack, apparently subscribed to the babble from the pro-Donald Trump “Qanon” group of far-right conspiracy advocates who believe that Fifth Generation (5G) wireless communications networks are linked to both the COVID pandemic and electronic surveillance. Continue reading
Old Congress, new Congress: Profiles in sore losing
The open sedition of so many Republican members is a crime and a national disgrace. They're attempting a clumsy coup d’état.
Ever since it first was published in 1956, there has been a joke about John F. Kennedy’s book Profiles in Courage (largely ghosted by speechwriter and advisor Ted Sorensen), historical portraits of eight US senators who demonstrated bravery in the face of enormous political opposition. Continue reading
The US money tree: The untold story of American aid to Israel
On December 21, the United States Congress passed the COVID-19 Relief Package, as part of a larger $2.3 trillion bill meant to cover spending for the rest of the fiscal year. As usual, US representatives allocated a massive sum of money for Israel. Continue reading
2020: The year the Tree of Liberty was torched
No doubt about it: 2020—a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for freedom—was the culmination of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad decade for freedom. Continue reading
In 2021, let’s ring a global alarm—on inequality—that everyone can hear
Our task ahead: preventing a deeply unequal world from recreating pre-pandemic business as usual.
Remember that old joke they used to tell—and maybe still do—in luxury retail circles? The customer, precious product in hand, walks over to a haughty sales clerk at a high-end emporium and timidly asks: “How much does this cost.” Continue reading
Trump’s crime du jour: election tampering
In the last 16 days of Donald Trump’s occupancy of the White House, what does he have to do that finally brings about his immediate removal? Shoot someone on Pennsylvania Avenue? Lob a nuke at Iran? Continue reading
Who will protect Georgia’s vote count?
The whole world is watching Georgia’s US Senate runoff elections. Set to finish January 5, the elections will decide who controls the balance of power in the pivotal next US Congress. Continue reading
Why senators must reject Avril Haines for intelligence
Even before President-Elect Joe Biden sets foot in the White House, the Senate Intelligence Committee may start hearings on his nomination of Avril Haines as director of national intelligence. Continue reading
Donald John Trump’s “seditious abuse”
As we come to the end of four rotten years, the child king spends his final days throwing an extra ton of trauma-inducing tantrums.
And it came upon a midnight clear during this holiday season that after weeks and months alternating between negotiation and inertia, Congress finally reached agreement with the White House and passed a new $908 billion relief bill that provided a stimulus payment of $600 to each qualified citizen. Continue reading
Trump’s vilest legacy
Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to reelect Donald Trump—46.8 percent of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election—don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America. Continue reading
Happy holidays: Better days are coming
Intrepid Report will resume publishing January 4, 2021
We are halfway through the holiday season. Thanksgiving and Chanukah are behind us and Christmas and the New Year are ahead. The biggest celebration will happen on January 20 when Donald J. Trump will be gone from the White House, either voluntarily or forcibly removed. Continue reading
Why progressives must not give Joe Biden a political honeymoon
Silence or merely faint dissent would enable the third Democratic president in four decades to again sacrifice progressive possibilities on the altar of corporate power.
The third time would not be a charm. Continue reading
No, Joe, don’t roll out the red carpet for torture enablers
We need political leaders and intelligence community officials who acknowledge that torture is illegal under international law, inhumane, and ineffective.
It was painful enough to live through the U.S. invasion of Iraq that caused untold devastation and human misery for no justifiable reason. Continue reading
Trickle-down economics doesn’t work but build-up does—is Biden listening?
How should the huge financial costs of the pandemic be paid for, as well as the other deferred needs of society after this annus horribilis? Continue reading
Rand Paul: Privacy for me, but not for thee
If a private citizen wants to open a bank account, board an airplane, buy tobacco or alcohol, or engage in many other perfectly ordinary activities, government requires that citizen to present photo identification which includes personal information, including his or her home address and date of birth. Continue reading
America’s destructive denialisms
The refusal of tens of millions of Americans to recognize the election results is part of a much larger denialism—of COVID-19, of climate change, and U.S. decline.
The presidential election wasn’t close. Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes, which translates to a margin of 4.5 percent. His Electoral College victory was larger than either of George W. Bush’s. Continue reading
‘The fossil fuel industry is terrified’: Gas company sues to destroy small town’s rights of nature law
"PGE throwing another lawsuit at us to try to bring us to heel, when our community has overwhelmingly said 'hell no' multiple times."
In a clear signal of how the fossil fuel industry feels about efforts to enact Rights of Nature protections that safeguard communities and the environment from the impacts of coal, gas, and oil development, an energy company has—yet again—filed a federal lawsuit challenging a local law in Grant Township, Pennsylvania Continue reading
More brave new food: FDA approves an “innovative animal biotechnology product”
This month the FDA approved the first “intentional genomic alteration” (IGA) in pigs. The “animal biotechnology product” is called a “GalSafe” pig. It is designed to eliminate a substance called “alpha-gal sugar” found on the surface of pigs’ cells that could cause people with Alpha-gal (AGS), syndrome to have allergic reactions to red meat. The recently identified condition of AGS usually begins with a tick bite that sensitizes someone to later allergic reactions to beef, pork, and lamb. Continue reading
The great divider: COVID-19 reflects global racism, not equality
The notion that the COVID-19 pandemic was ‘the great equalizer’ should be dead and buried by now. If anything, the lethal disease is another terrible reminder of the deep divisions and inequalities in our societies. That said, the treatment of the disease should not be a repeat of the same shameful scenario. Continue reading
Hey, hey, FDA! how many Americans have you killed since May?
As I write this on December 17, the US Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is meeting to review a COVID-19 vaccine developed by biotech company Moderna. Likely outcome: The panel will recommend approval of the vaccine to FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn. Continue reading
Tackling the infrastructure and unemployment crises: The “American System” solution
A self-funding national infrastructure bank modeled on the “American System” of Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt would help solve not one but two of the country’s biggest problems.
Millions of Americans have joined the ranks of the unemployed, and government relief checks and savings are running out; meanwhile, the country still needs trillions of dollars in infrastructure. Putting the unemployed to work on those infrastructure projects seems an obvious solution, especially given that the $600 or $700 stimulus checks Congress is planning on issuing will do little to address the growing crisis. Various plans for solving the infrastructure crisis involving public-private partnerships have been proposed, but they’ll invariably result in private investors reaping the profits while the public bears the costs and liabilities. We have relied for too long on private, often global, capital, while the Chinese run circles around us building infrastructure with credit simply created on the books of their government-owned banks. Continue reading
The final days of Donald Trump, absentee president
During which a petulant manchild tries to wear us out with his refusal to face reality.
Pardon my silence these last few days, but the out-of-control firehose that is the Trump White House has upped the water pressure with increased insanity, mendacity and just plain idiotic behavior. It can overwhelm. Continue reading
School privatization zealot Betsy DeVos reportedly urging career education staff to obstruct Biden agenda
One House Democrat said he can't wait for January 20, "when this disgrace is pushed out the door and her bags are dropped at the curb."
After spending much of her nearly four-year tenure in government attacking public schools and pushing privatization schemes, outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is now reportedly encouraging career staffers at her department to obstruct President-elect Joe Biden’s policy agenda. Continue reading
Pompeo’s ugly Christian Dominionist dogma infects global relations
The most tarnished legacy of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be his introduction to U.S. foreign policy the racist dogma of the Christian Reconstructionist/Dominionist Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which, along with its sister Presbyterian denominations – the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) – are rife with warnings of a “yellow peril” endangering Western Christian “civilization.” Continue reading
Police say seizing property without trial helps keep crime down. A new study shows they’re wrong.
Civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow police to seize property without trial, are frequently justified as tools to seize millions from kingpins. A new study reveals the median amount taken is as low as $369 in some states.
In 2015, New Mexico lawmakers unanimously passed a bill to all but end civil asset forfeiture, the process that lets police keep cash or property they seize, even if they never charge the owner with a crime, so long as they suspect that it’s linked to criminal activity. High-profile lawsuits and press attention had prompted some states to reexamine their forfeiture laws. Continue reading
Big Brother in disguise: The rise of a new, technological world order
It had the potential for disaster. Continue reading
Study of 50 years of tax cuts for rich confirms ‘trickle down’ theory is an absolute sham
"Major tax cuts for the rich since the 1980s have increased income inequality, with all the problems that brings, without any offsetting gains in economic performance."
Neoliberal gospel says that cutting taxes on the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone by boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment, but a new analysis of fiscal policies in 18 countries over the last 50 years reveals that progressive critics of “trickle down” theory have been right all along: supply-side economics fuels inequality, and the real beneficiaries of the right-wing approach to taxation are the super-rich. Continue reading
A public option won’t save us. The sick and disabled need Medicare-for-All
Medicare and Medicaid are rife with complicated formulas for exclusions, exceptions, and limitations. The cruelty that is imposed by the constraints of these programs cannot be overstated.
I have multiple sclerosis. It is a painful, often debilitating, ever-progressing disability and disease with no cure. I don’t have a viable plan for what will surely be a lifetime of extensive healthcare. No one in my situation could. It would be impossible for me to maintain long term care under the for-profit insurance system. Over the last ten years, insurance deductibles have risen 111%, premiums have risen 55%, and workers’ earnings only 27%. I currently work full time to maintain my very expensive employer-based healthcare. When working full time renders me too disabled to continue working full time, I will promptly lose this healthcare. Continue reading
Months After AOC demand and federal suit, USPS releases DeJoy calendar that is ‘almost entirely redacted’
"Haul Louis DeJoy in front of a criminal grand jury for his postal sabotage and subversion of our elections," said Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Nearly four months after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez first demanded that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy turn over his daily calendar, the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday released documents rendered almost completely useless by heavy redactions concealing who DeJoy met with as he worked to implement his destructive overhaul of mail operations. Continue reading
When the people rose: How the Intifada changed the political discourse around Palestine
December 8 came and went as if it was an ordinary day. For Palestinian political groups, it was another anniversary to be commemorated, however hastily. It was on this day, thirty-three years ago, that the First Palestinian Intifada (uprising) broke out, and there was nothing ordinary about this historic event. Continue reading
Neera Tanden and Antony Blinken personify the ‘moderate’ rot at the top of the Democratic Party
What's so moderate about being on the take from rich beneficiaries of corporate America while opposing proposals that would curb their profits in order to reduce income inequality and advance social justice?
Posted on January 6, 2021 by Norman Solomon
Sometimes a couple of nominations convey an incoming president’s basic mindset and worldview. That’s how it seems with Joe Biden’s choices to run the Office of Management and Budget and the State Department. Continue reading →