Latest articles
Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialism, and the Other America (Part Two of a Five Part Series)
by Edward Martin and Mateo Pimentel / February 18th, 2016
In 1962, Michael Harrington wrote The Other America, which basically identified the causes of poverty and inequality in the United States as the result of unregulated free market capitalism. This book in turn had a significant impact on the thinking of John F. Kennedy and the role of government in promoting greater social justice. But it was the Johnson Administration and the War on Poverty programs (Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps, Expanded Social Security Benefits, etc.) that followed the Kennedy Administration’s lead. What the Johnson Administration did was address the issues facing The Other America, such as the fact that the …
Facing uncertainty, the Inland Empire (WA) needs more than a global warming bucket list
by Paul Haeder / February 18th, 2016
Ice, Heat, Rain, Drought
How can someone in the Inland Northwest not think about weather, the future of our valley, what the aquifer will look like in decades and the potential impacts of some scenario unfolding that is twice (or four times) more extreme/devastating than the windstorm event Spokane, Washington, experienced late last year?
Do we stash away gallons and gallons of potable water, hundreds of pounds of dry food, get certified as advanced first aid responders, cache cash, tools and battery-powered technologies to get through a more profound weather event — all on our own, survivalist style?
Did anyone think – while …
The Legacy of Michael Harrington, Hillary Clinton, and the Marxist Critique (Part One of a Five Part Series)
by Edward Martin and Mateo Pimentel / February 18th, 2016
As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.
– Pope Francis I, Laudato Si
Democrats and Republicans, and all those who hold fast to the divine status of the market, clearly do not want a national discussion about free markets, capitalism, and those for whom free markets are really designed to serve. This is why the richest 1% in the United States is alarmingly …
by Chris Time Steele / February 18th, 2016
A new song by Time, “I Stole Time on the Clock to Write This” produced by Ephelant. The song is about economic inequality, patriarchy, and the turmoil of people being overworked. Ephelant and Time’s new album How to Sew Wounds With Words will be released April 2016.
https://soundcloud.com/ephelant/ephelant-x-time-i-stole-time-on-the-clock-to-write-this
by Vacy Vlazna / February 17th, 2016
In Palestine, you would be forgiven for thinking that there was no United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The SR, Christof Heyns, in the past 6 years, has never made a country on-site visit to Palestine to get first hand information on the hundreds of cases of Zionist perpetration of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the people of Palestine.
Not even the dozens of extrajudicial street executions of Palestinian children and youth carrying the invisible knives of Allege-gate since October 1, 2015 has impelled Heyns to rush to Palestine to ensure the zionist war criminals uphold Palestinian …
by David Smith-Ferri / February 17th, 2016
Last month, as US border patrol agents began rounding up Central American women and children denied asylum, a small group of international peace activists from Voices for Creative Nonviolence boarded a plane for Helsinki, Finland, to visit two longtime Iraqi friends who fled Baghdad last summer and somehow completed a perilous seven-week journey over land and sea to reach this northern seaport. Negotiating our way from the airport in Helsinki to Laajasalo, a small island and suburb where we were to stay with a Finnish journalist, we crossed a frozen and snow-covered Baltic Sea, as white flakes swirled in the …
by John R. Hall / February 17th, 2016
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” Those were the last few words of one of the most inspiring speeches I’ve ever encountered. Written and delivered by peace angel Arundhati Roy at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil, January 27th, 2003, she inspired me to arise from lethargic insouciance and make some noise. I too have little doubt that another world is on her way, but what will she look like? Garden of Eden or nuclear wasteland? Will she be breathing freely or gasping for air? And if my words of anger are shouted …
Deconstructing the French free speech narrative
by Arindrajit Basu / February 17th, 2016
With increased globalisation, the last few decades have been witness to the increasing heterogeneity of communities and nations. This increasing heterogeneity has spurred a need to accommodate diverse cultural, religious, historical and linguistic identities within the social fabric. In many instances, this accommodation has been imposed through a process of assimilation where minority communities have been coerced to shed their identities and imbibe the cultural values and norms of the majority. The French nation state is a stark example of this. By constantly citing Liberalism and Progress as its raison d’être, the French State has manipulated many supposed liberal …
by Patrick Walker / February 17th, 2016
I must start by clarifying: I am no fan or today’s Democratic Party, and I strongly suspect the leftist hypothesis that today’s jackass party is beyond reforming is most likely true. But until strenuously tested, it is merely a hypothesis, while the Left treats it as a religious dogma that must be protected from all rational scrutiny.
For the sake of our nation’s common good—mostly likely, for the sake of saving human civilization from encroaching climate destruction—I think we must expose the hypothesis that Democrats are beyond reform to testing by purely rational experiment.
The experiment I propose is massive …
by Ramzy Baroud / February 16th, 2016
The Israeli ‘Right’, as demonstrated by a scary coalition of right wing nationalists, ultranationalists and religious zealots, deserves all the bad press it has garnered since its formation last May.
But none of this should come as a shock, as the ‘Right’ in Israel has never been anything but a coalition of demagogues that catered to the lowest common denominator in society. As unlikable as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, he is, in fact, a fair representation of the worst that Israel has to offer, which, over the years, has morphed to represent mainstream thinking.
But Israel has not always …
by Matt Peppe / February 16th, 2016
Just an hour before my wife and I landed in her native Puerto Rico last month, the island’s government had defaulted on $1 billion in bond interest payments. It was the second default in five months for the cash-strapped government whose debt now totals $72 billion. None of this was evident as we waded through the crowds in Rafael Hernández airport in Aguadilla, which had been converted into a civilian airport after the closure of Ramey Air Force Base 40 years earlier. People hugged their relatives, welcoming them back home or bidding them farewell. It was a normal scene you’d see at any airport in the …
by Andre Vltchek / February 16th, 2016
It used to be presented as a huge success story. We were told that in the middle of a ravished Middle East, surrounded by despair, death and pain, a land of milk and honey was shining brightly like a torch of hope.
Photo: Andre Vltchek
Or was it more like a delicious cake surrounded by rot? This exceptional place was called Iraqi Kurdistan, or officially the “Kurdistan Region.”
This is where the victorious global capitalism has been injecting “massive investments,” while the West was “guaranteeing security and peace.”
Here, Turkish firms were building …
by Yves Engler / February 15th, 2016
Author’s Note: The below article was submitted to the Winnipeg Free Press perspectives and politics editor who edited it and asked me to look over her changes. A second editor then asked me to clarify/rewrite a sentence, which was done. The story was then spiked and, to the best of my knowledge, Manitoba’s leading newspaper has yet to mention the below controversy.
It’s the black eye few Manitobans knew they had.
“Senate Passes Motions on Unwholesome Practices by Manitoba Hydro Limited” read one recent Nigerian press headline while another blared: “Manitoba sued over transmission contract extension”.
Largely unbeknownst to …
by Felicity Arbuthnot / February 15th, 2016
… do we provide training and advice and help in order to make sure that countries actually obey the norms of humanitarian law? Yes, we do.
— David Cameron, Prime Minister’s Questions, January 21st, 2016
It has been a bad week for Prime Minister David Cameron’s decimation-bent government at home and abroad.
His Chancellor, George Osborne is hell bent on targeting, it seems, all but the mega-rich and the multi-nationals, determined to erase all affordable social housing in a country where the average salary – before tax – is £25,500 (2014 figure) and the average monthly rent for a modest flat is £816 …
by James Hoover / February 15th, 2016
Antonin Scalia is gone and with him – for now — the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. The pity is that we pivot to this fact right after a dutiful declaration of loss and a mechanical ticking off of stellar skills and flawless accomplishments, as did the Republican candidates for president.
At the South Carolina debate, Trump was most truthful, saying that if he were president, he would nominate a replacement, himself, but that Obama’s nominee should be delayed by the Senate: “delay, delay” any hearings. Cruz described knowing Scalia for twenty years, and “a brilliant man.” Any nomination …
by David Berggren / February 14th, 2016
Aid, what is it good for? While many Bono-loving, bleeding heart liberals would be appalled at the very thought of questioning the importance of giving money to charity or to the less fortunate, such a belief is rooted in pure fiction. In fact, the seemingly innocuous act of transferring money abroad in voluntary Robin Hood fashion is at the root of most political problems wreaking havoc across the developing world. Why? Because doling out truckloads of cash has not only utterly failed to raise the living standards of Africans, but has served solely as a way for the United States …
Coercive Engineered Migration: Zionism's War on Europe (Part 8 of an 11 Part Series)
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / February 14th, 2016
It is particularly ironic that the Zionist-controlled media are pushing the agenda of multiculturalism in Europe while insisting on the right of Israel, the world’s only racist, apartheid state, to exist. At the same time, the conditions for this artificial, dystopian form of multiculturalism involve the destruction of some of the world’s most successful multi-racial states such as Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria and, if they succeed, possibly Eritrea.
What we are witnessing here is a process of engineered acculturation where people are being uprooted, displaced and abandoned to the limitless tyranny of the market and commodity fetishism. The boats crossing the Mediterranean …
by Stansfield Smith / February 13th, 2016
The end of January a news article appeared, “Ecuador To Sell A Third Of Its Amazon Rainforest To Chinese Oil Companies,” and has resurfaced again and again on the internet. Posted on progressive websites such as Reader Supported News, Daily Kos, “The PeoplesVoice.org,” “ThinkGlobalGreen.org,” the story often comes with maps of the affected area, and include pictures of indigenous peoples living peaceably with nature or protesting against oil drilling.
Almost all these stories refer back to one article three years ago, in March 2013, in Australian online journal Business Insider:
“Ecuador is planning to auction off three million of the country’s 8.1 …
by Medea Benjamin / February 13th, 2016
At the February 11 Democratic Debate, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had a spirited exchange about an unlikely topic: the 92-year old former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Sanders berated Clinton for saying that she appreciated the foreign policy mentoring she got from Henry Kissinger. “I happen to believe,”said Sanders, “that Henry Kissinger was one of the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this country.”
In one of Sanders’ rare outbursts of enmity, he added, “I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger. …
by Paul Larudee / February 13th, 2016
12 February, 2016
Association France Palestine Solidarité
((Name deleted at correspondent’s request.))
Dear ((Name deleted at correspondent’s request.))
Thank you for your message of 12 February, 2016. We take very seriously the threats to freedom of speech in France and everywhere, and we are appalled that the courts have upheld the convictions of French activists for advocating a boycott of Israeli products. We feel compelled to ask one question, however. Are you concerned about the freedom to advocate BDS or are you concerned about freedom of speech?
France is the land of Voltaire, whose views have been characterized as “I disapprove …
by Survival International / February 13th, 2016
From the Rio Grande to Reparations
by Eoin Higgins / February 13th, 2016
Is Bernie Sanders really calling for revolutionary change, or is he just telling his base what they want to hear?
Bernie Sanders made a cold political calculation in 1998 that affected the lives of hundreds of poor, powerless people half a country away. He did it because it would benefit his affluent, politically engaged constituency, and, in turn, benefit him.
Two decades later, Sanders is making another political calculation. He’s choosing to disregard African-American demands for reparations because he believes he can concentrate on empowering his affluent, politically engaged constituency, who will, in turn, empower him.
This is not a “political revolution,” and …
by Ralph Nader / February 12th, 2016
Bernie Sanders is far too easy on Hillary Clinton in their debates. Clinton flaunts her record and experience in ways that Sanders could use to expose her serious vulnerabilities and disqualifications for becoming president. Sanders responds to Clinton’s points, but without the precision that could demolish her arrogance.
For example, she repeatedly says that Sanders has not levelled with people about the cost of full Medicare for all, or single-payer. Really? In other countries, single-payer is far simpler and more efficient than our present profiteering, wasteful, corporatized healthcare industry. Canada covers all of its citizens, with free choice of doctors and hospitals, for …
by Cassandra Dixon / February 12th, 2016
After a breakdown in mediation between the State of Israel and the Palestinian villages of Massafer Yatta, Israeli authorities destroyed 24 homes in the South Hebron Hills. The homes lie within an area which Israel claims as Firing Zone 918, in which approximately 1000 Palestinian civilians live in 8 villages.
Early on the morning of February 2, Israeli soldiers closed access to Firing Zone 918 and placed checkpoints near the Palestinian villages of Bir al Idd and Al Fakheit. In the village of Jinba, Israeli soldiers and border police demolished 15 houses. They also fired sound grenades and teargas. Several …
Profile of Social Justice Lawyer Chaumtoli Huq
by Bill Quigley / February 12th, 2016
“Law on the margins is so joyful. You are connecting with people!”
Chaumtoli Huq is Bangladeshi-American Muslim human rights lawyer. She describes herself as a community centered, social movement lawyer. Now teaching at Brooklyn Law, her social justice legal career has focused on civil and human rights, especially workplace justice issues assisting organizations for immigrants. She served briefly as general counsel for the Public Advocate of New York until 2014 when she involuntarily became famous as a victim in a high profile police brutality case. More about that later.
Today her passion is an innovative social media platform called Law@theMargins, …
by Kersasp Shekhdar / February 12th, 2016
Amidst a hand-wringing defence of the indefensible, The New Statesman propagated a common myth thus: “The European Union has indeed brought peace and prosperity to the people of Europe . . .”
Indeed, it never did. The institution that arguably brought peace and truly brought prosperity to Europe was the E.E.C. Colloquially, ‘it was a different type of animal,’ say, the cow in the barn as opposed to the wolf at the door (now which institution might that symbolize?).
And talking about animals, we never had a single ‘PIGS’ during the E.E.C.’s years, did we? Neither were there so many ailing and …
by Gary Brumback / February 12th, 2016
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
National Council of Churches of Christ in the US
National Council of Synagogues
Unitarian Universalist
US Council of Muslims
World Council of Churches
World Council of Independent Christian Churches
Were it not for its record of either engaging in war, promoting it or acquiescing to it, one would think organized religion would be a natural ally of and prominent activist for peace. There are, to be sure, some exceptions among the various denominations or religious sects (e.g., the Quakers and the Mennonites), and small religious, antiwar groups can be found protesting now and then, here and there. Overall, though, and throughout history …
by Gary Corseri / February 12th, 2016
“A” Is for “Asininity”
That’s a particular kind of stupidity.
All of us can be stupid at times. (Ever see that picture of Einstein with his tongue hanging out like an aardvark’s, clowning—one supposes—for the camera?)
It’s in our genes to be stupid at times. Looking back on the Vietnam War—which ultimately took his own son’s life—Secretary of Defense McNamara attributed his own stupidity to the “fog of war.”
I would rather call it “asininity.”
Asininity is stupidity that is stubborn as a jackass; stupidity that insists on itself in spite of all contrary evidence.
The US has been guilty of asininity for a couple …
by Jonathan Cook / February 12th, 2016
Israel’s frantic cocoon-weaving entered a new phase last week, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stepped up efforts to stifle the last vestiges of dissent.
The military censor’s office, a draconian 70-year-old hangover from British rule in Palestine, extended its powers over Israeli press and TV to prominent blogs and social media.
The government has also threatened to revoke the press cards of “journalists and editors who are negligent in their work” – aimed at those who depart too obviously from the official line.
These moves follow culture minister Miri Regev’s announcement of a “loyalty law” that will deny state funding to artists and cultural …
by Jack A. Smith / February 12th, 2016
The Obama Administration is expanding its military power and threats against Russia and China as well as increasing its war efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria while preparing to restart Washington’s old war in Libya.
Most of this has been revealed in the first six weeks of the 2016 election year and President Barack Obama’s last full year in office without any significant new provocations against the United States. At least part of the White House motive must be to undercut right wing Republican campaign rhetoric alleging Obama and the Democrats are “soft on defense,” and creating a more robust martial …
