As the recently departed progressive champion John Lewis warned, your right to vote “is not guaranteed. You can lose it.” Continue reading
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Save our post office—and our right to vote
Trump is willing to destroy this prized national asset to cling to power.
The magazine that referred to Trump as the ‘casino owner from Queens’
Is the origin of ‘Q’ found in the pages of Spy magazine?
Although Donald Trump’s presidency is well-known for its antipathy toward the press, one of the main targets for Trump’s ire was Spy magazine, which was published from 1986 to 1998. Spy’s editors, Kurt Anderson and Graydon Carter, set an editorial policy for its many articles on Donald Trump and his New York social life that referred to the real estate magnate as the “casino operator from Queens.” That got under Trump’s skin because he believed he had become a member of Manhattan’s royal elite and did not deserve to be connected to “working class” Queens. When Spy wasn’t dishing on Trump by describing him as a shady casino owner from Queens, it referred to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian,” further setting off the short-tempered egotist. Continue reading
Will Ohio finally inherit its wind?
Amidst an astonishing billion-dollar nuke reactor corruption scandal, one of the world’s richest wind resources—the key to Ohio’s economic and ecological future—is being trashed by a single sentence. Continue reading
Netanyahu regime terrorizes Gazans
Netanyahu is desperate. On trial for fraud, bribery and breach of trust with damning evidence against him, his political career and personal freedom are at stake. Continue reading
Enmity will never produce a Palestinian state
The threat of annexation has now been averted by UAE’s peace treaty with Israel
The Palestinians have endured unending loss, humiliation and hardship throughout generations. No peoples on earth have been treated so unfairly for so many decades, not only at the hands of the occupying power but also by Western powers and the United Nations that has merely supported Palestinian rights on paper. Continue reading
Hands off Lebanon: Macron’s self-serving ‘new pact’ must be shunned
French President Emmanuel Macron is in no position to pontificate to Lebanon about the need for political and economic reforms. Just as thousands of Lebanese took to the streets of Beirut demanding “revenge” against the ruling classes, the French people have relentlessly been doing the same; both peoples have been met with police violence and arrests. Continue reading
Stamp out the Trump attacks on our Postal Service!
The president and his obeisant postmaster general are out to destroy voting by mail—and democracy.
As one of our most august Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin would tell Donald Trump to go fly a kite. And hope for a major electrical storm. Then Ben would advise Trump to keep his mitts off our post office. Continue reading
Pelosi calls lawmakers back to stop Trump’s election and postal service sabotage
WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. has called lawmakers back into session, despite the “virtual” Democratic National Convention, to stop GOP President Donald Trump’s multifaceted scheme to stop voting by mail by basically shutting down the U.S. Postal Service before the Nov. 3 election. Continue reading
Julian Assange court case delayed again in bizarre circumstances
‘I have never in my career faced so much difficulty attempting to trial monitor as in Julian Assange’s case.’—Rebecca Vincent, Director of International Campaigns for Reporters Without Borders.
There were bizarre scenes at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London Friday, as the extradition process of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange (present via videophone from Belmarsh prison) was again delayed. Continue reading
Profiteering off the pandemic
Since the start of the pandemic, American billionaires have been cleaning up. As more than 50 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance, billionaires became $637 billion richer. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth has ballooned 59 percent. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s, 39 percent. Walmart’s Walton family has added $25 billion. Continue reading
This pandemic brings out the worst in our CEOs
Last year, CEOs signed a pledge to be better corporate citizens. Then the pandemic hit.
As horrible as the COVID-19 crisis is, it has brought out the best in the American people—the selflessness of front-line nurses and doctors, for example, as well as the generous community spirit of local food businesses. Continue reading
Don’t be hoodwinked by Trump’s UAE-Israel ‘peace deal’
“HUGE breakthrough today,” crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new Israel-UAE partnership should fool no one. Though it will supposedly stave off Israeli annexation of the West Bank and encourage tourism and trade between both countries, in reality, it is nothing more than a scheme to give an Arab stamp of approval to Israel’s status quo of land theft, home demolitions, arbitrary extrajudicial killings, apartheid laws, and other abuses of Palestinian rights.
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Avoiding World War III in the Caucasus
“The Caucasus is Ground Zero in the New Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.”
Continue reading
CIA-sponsored propaganda has been around for 75 years
The release of a report by the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), billed as the Donald Trump administration’s “dedicated center for countering foreign disinformation and propaganda, cites the Strategic Culture Foundation in Russia, Canada’s Global Research Center, and other online publications as “proxy sites” for Russian intelligence and the Russian Foreign Ministry. The State Department’s report is titled, “Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem” and it is not much different than the series of reports issued by the State Department’s “International Information Program” in the mid-2000s that were used to debase U.S. journalists and authors critical of the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney neo-conservative wars of choice. Those diatribes, like the recent one masquerading as a “special report,” were written on the U.S. taxpayers’ dime and represent a squandering of money. Continue reading
On its 85th anniversary, ‘no damn politician’ should be allowed to scrap Social Security
On this anniversary, we must renew our commitment to preserving and expanding Social Security in the face of these relentless efforts to undermine it.
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law 85 years ago today [August 14, 1935], he expressed hope that the program would offer Americans a “measure of protection” from the “hazards and vicissitudes of life.” True to FDR’s vision, Social Security has protected workers from some of the costliest hazards and vicissitudes of life—including loss of income from retirement, disability, and the death of a family breadwinner. This year, though, Americans have faced “hazards and vicissitudes” unseen for one hundred years—a deadly global pandemic and the resulting economic fallout. Now, as Social Security continues to provide basic financial security to 68 million Americans during this tumultuous time, the program itself needs protection. Not only are Social Security’s resources strained by the pandemic; the program’s opponents seek to undermine and eventually dismantle it amid a national crisis. Continue reading
Needed: Indicators for measuring injustice and societal decay
Adequate housing, healthcare, food, public services, education, mass transit, health & safety standards, and environmental protections are the prerequisites for a humane democracy.
Economic indicators—data points, trends, and micro-categories—are the widgets of the big information industry. By contrast, indicators for our society’s democratic health are not similarly compiled, aggregated, and reported. Its up and down trends are presented piecemeal and lack quantitative precision. Continue reading
What will Trump do to the world to win reelection?
Trump shrugged at 150,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths. Who’s to say he’s above starting a fight with China or Iran?
In 2016, Alan Lichtman departed from conventional wisdom to predict a Donald Trump victory in that year’s presidential election. The political scientist was following something he called the “13 keys to the White House.” Using this relatively straightforward metric, Lichtman had correctly predicted the outcome of presidential elections stretching back to 1984. Continue reading
‘Just comes out and says it’: Trump declares Postal Service can’t handle mail-in voting because he’s blocking funding
‘This is crazy by any standard. The president of the United States is actively trying to sabotage the election.
President Donald Trump proclaimed Wednesday that the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t have the capacity to handle an unprecedented increase in mail-in ballots because it lacks funds that his administration is blocking, remarks that were immediately viewed as an open admission of election sabotage by a president who has previously called USPS “a joke.” Continue reading
The politics of war: What is Israel’s endgame in Lebanon and Syria?
On August 4, hours before a massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued an ominous warning to Lebanon. Continue reading
This is Amerika where fascism, totalitarianism and militarism go hand in hand
There’s a pattern emerging if you pay close enough attention. Continue reading
Military recruiters don’t belong in high schools
Recruiters deliberately exploit the financial and social insecurities of teenagers to enlist more soldiers.
Schools have become contested territory. Continue reading
The U.S. presidential election: A referendum on Donald Trump’s character or a campaign on law-and-order?
Traditionally, Labor Day marks the last stretch in the U.S. presidential campaign leading to the election this year to be held on November 3. Continue reading
A conspiracy to steal the election, folks’: Alarms sound after postal worker reports removal of sorting machines
The removal of key equipment from Post Offices should be viewed as nothing less than ‘sabotage,’ said one observer.
The head of the Iowa Postal Workers Union alleged Tuesday that mail sorting machines are “being removed” from Post Offices in her state due to new policies imposed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor to President Donald Trump whose operational changes have resulted in dramatic mail slowdowns across the nation. Continue reading
Want to get into some ‘good trouble’? Join the fight to save our post office
And that means fighting for our right to vote.
Every now and then an enormously beneficial soul comes along—someone whose work is so productive, honest and inspirational that he or she ought not be allowed to die. That’s how I felt last month when I heard that John Lewis had slipped away from us. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: TikTok and the war on China
Every charge that Trump and his minions make against Chinese companies is true for US corporations, which have been spying on Americans and the rest of the world for decades. Continue reading
A message to the left about Kamala Harris—and us
If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are elected, they'll still be influenced by the powerful forces that have shaped their careers. All the more reason progressives cannot sit this one out.
Millions of people have worked for change in this country in recent years. An incomplete list includes the Occupy movement, Standing Rock, the Sunrise movement, the Bernie Sanders campaigns, Black Lives Matter, the Red State teachers’ strikes, and the Women’s Marches. For the activist left (I include myself in this group), here’s a thought: It matters who Joe Biden chose for vice president. Of course, it does. But it doesn’t matter as much as you do. If you stay committed, if you unite your movements into a broad alliance for social and economic change, change will come. You have that power. Continue reading
Betsy DeVos’ deadly plan to reopen schools
Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is heading the administration’s effort to force schools to reopen in the fall for in-person instruction. What’s her plan to reopen safely? She doesn’t have one. Continue reading
America doesn’t have presidential debates, but it should
On August 6, the Commission on Presidential Debates denied US president Donald Trump’s request to increase the number of debates between himself and Democratic nominee Joe Biden from three to four. Continue reading
Trump envoy for regime change in Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, adds Iran to his portfolio
Everything thrown at the Islamic Republic for over 40 years to return the country to US client state status failed. Continue reading
U.S. defense secretary tells EU: ‘deter peace,’ confront Russia & China
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told Europeans, in statements on July 29th and August 9, “I’ve said that very publicly, I’ve said that very privately to my counterparts as well, about the importance of NATO, any alliance, sharing the burden so that we can all deter Russia and avoid peace in Europe.’” Continue reading
The smartest guy in his West Point class
The imaginary inner world of a fool is a dangerous place, especially if he happens to be the Secretary of State of the United States of America. Continue reading
Trump’s ‘law and order’ campaign is a distraction
Posted on August 20, 2020 by Robert Reich
Trump has refused to act to contain the coronavirus, opting to sit on the sidelines as the pandemic ravages the country. But when it comes to waging violence against his own people, he’s quickly risen to the occasion. Continue reading →