Plutocracy

by Rebekah Entralgo ( Inequality.org ) – In what Governor Ron DeSantis likes to call his “freedom state” of Florida, the freedom to belong to an effective union is under a ferocious attack. DeSantis, with the school year winding down, has just appeared at a Miami charter school to sign a new slate of bills […]

Climate Crisis

Our Climate Crisis: The Ultra-Wealthy have a Private Jet Problem, Therefore so do We

Inequality.org

Blogging Our Great Divide by Omar Ocampo ( Inequality.org ) – The past two years have been a bonanza for private aviation. The drastic increase in demand has led to flight delays, increased costs, and pilot shortages. But the slow deterioration of working conditions for aerospace labor has not stopped the jet-owning […]

Epidemics

COVID Response opened a New Era of Social Generosity; Why Didn’t we Make it Permanent?

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com) – I doubt I ever feel older or more passé than when I’m out in my city — New York — and I still put on a mask before stepping onto a bus, going into the subway, or entering a store. Increasingly, I find myself alone in a world of the unmasked with […]

Corporations

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – We’ve just passed through tax time again. (Unless, like me, you live in one of several states ravaged by recent extreme weather events brought on by climate change. In that case, you can wait until October.) It’s also that moment when the War Resisters League — slogan: “If you work for peace, […]

Corruption

Clarence Thomas is Corrupt to the Core, and We should have Listened to Anita Hill

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Feature; Special to Informed Comment) – Clarence and Ginni Thomas have been the “King and Queen of Conflict of Interest” since his controversial confirmation. The extent and brazenness of Thomas’ public graft is astonishing. His long-time benefactor and “sponsor” Harlan Crow is no garden variety Republican donor or “kingmaker,” but a Nazi-loving, autocrat-worshipping, […]

Corruption

Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

ProPublica

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski ( ProPublica) – In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago […]

Climate Crisis

Savage Capitalism: From Climate Change to Bank Failures to War

Tomdispatch

By David Barsamian and Noam Chomsky | – [The following is excerpted from David Barsamian’s recent interview with Noam Chomsky at AlternativeRadio.org.] David Barsamian: On March 20th, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest report. The new IPCC assessment from senior scientists warned that there’s little time to lose in tackling the […]

Arms Sales

Congress Has Been Captured by the Arms Industry: And We’re Paying the Price (and What a Price It Is!)

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – On March 13th, the Pentagon rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The results were — or at least should have been — stunning, even by the standards of a department that’s used to getting what it wants when it wants it. The new Pentagon budget would come in […]

Neoliberalism

The End of Renting? In Some Cities Affordable Housing is a Thing of the Past

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – In 1937, the American folklorist Alan Lomax invited Louisiana folksinger Huddie Ledbetter (better known as Lead Belly) to record some of his songs for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Lead Belly and his wife Martha searched in vain for a place to spend a few nights nearby. But they were […]