Economy

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Some economists worry the world has passed “peak globalization.” But that could be good for the planet. By John Feffer, August 14, 2019. Print South Korea is now a rule-abiding participant in the global economy. If North Korea traded its nuclear weapons program for a peace treaty, security guarantees, […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Conspiracy Theories Hide the Real Plot, of Corporations against our Health

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump came to power in part because of weird conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, and he is still at it. This pollution of our information system with ridiculous charges against the Clintons, or the Obamas, or any number of other bêtes noires, is a form of misdirection, a technique used […]

Donald Trump

Racist Billionaires, Patriotic Socialists, Climate Emergency and the Fate of America

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – As I turn 75, there’s no simpler way to put it than this: I’m an old man on a new planet — and, in case it isn’t instantly obvious, that’s not good news on either score. I still have a memory of being a camp counselor in upstate New York more […]

Donald Trump

It isn’t just the Racism: Trump’s Stupid Trade Wars have Driven US Manufacturing into Recession

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It’s official. Trump has put US manufacturing, which is about 14% of the US gross national product, into recession, according to AFP. Recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline. The recession in manufacturing has many reasons, including a cyclical slowdown in the Chinese economy. But on top of […]

Climate Change

Why We Can’t Address the Climate Emergency without confronting Plutocracy

Inequality.org

By Tom Athanasiou Something has changed, as most everyone in the climate movement agrees, and we have plenty of signposts that track the shift, from David Wallace-Well’s 2017 New York Magazine piece, The Uninhabitable Earth, to last year’s Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy, a paper downloaded by the hundreds of thousands. The […]

Inequality

Is Bernie Sanders Right that 3 Billionaires Have more Wealth than Half of America?

Institute for Policy Studies

By Chuck Collins | – And in addition to the 3 billionaires Bernie mentioned, we should also be worried about the expanding fortunes of multi-generational wealth dynasties. The wealthiest 3 billionaires in the U.S. –Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population […]

Climate Change

Politicians are Choosing Corporate Polluters & Planet Wreckers over Our Welfare: Can we Make them Stop?

OtherWords

By Kelsey Hawkins-Johnson | – (Otherwords) – From the White House to Ohio, too many politicians care more about protecting toxic industries than their constituents. I spent the summer of 2015 knocking on doors across Cincinnati. As a rising college sophomore, I’d joined a group called Ohio Citizen Action to canvass for my community and […]

Democratic Socialism

Why Tiffany Caban’s Win for Queens DA is Good News For Progressive Dem Presidential Candidates

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is very close, with only an 1,100-vote margin and 3400 absentee ballots to be counted, but it appears to be that Tiffany Caban, the Democratic Socialists of America candidate for the Democratic primary district attorney for Queens, has won. If so, she will be the new district attorney. Democratic […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Dismantling of our Government: Deregulating our Way to Disaster

John Buell

(Informed Comment) – While Trump’s xenophobic and protectionist agenda, thankfully often blocked by the courts, has received the lion’s share of media attention, his henchmen have enacted a whole series of game changing initiatives in the area of federal regulation. Deregulating such domestic concerns as transportation, occupational health and safety, the environment is hardly new. […]