What Did We Buy With the $5 Trillion That the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Have Cost Us?
We were lied into that war, and it has weakened our economy. If anyone can tell me what benefits that war brought the average American, I’d like to hear it.
Paul Street | How to Stop Capitalism’s Deadly War With Nature
It’s a hard to imagine a more terrible crime. Geocide is bigger than genocide.
Henry Giroux: Liberty and Justice for All? (Video)
Giroux argues that the United States' embrace of a surveillance state and culture of violence have replaced the values of freedom, liberty and justice, putting American democracy in jeopardy.
The Biggest Strike in World History? No Thanks, We’re Focusing on the New iPhone
A coalition of trade unions in India representing some 180 million workers staged a one-day general strike on Friday, September 2, in protest of what they called the “anti-worker and anti-people” policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ...Assocham, India’s chamber of commerce, estimated that the economic impact of the strike was $2.4 billion–$2.7 billion (Hindustan Today, 9/3/16).
Peter Dolack: Building a Better Movement
We do need to stop lamenting that we don’t know how to build an effective movement and start seriously discussing how we are going to build an effective movement.
Mark Fiore | America’s Worst Idea (Video)
Don’t be fooled, giving these places “to the states” is just a cover for opening them up to development of one kind or another.
Jonathan Marshall: US Arms Makers Invest in a New Cold War
As Lee Fang observed recently in The Intercept, “The escalating anti-Russian rhetoric in the U.S. presidential campaign comes in the midst of a major push by military contractors to position Moscow as a potent enemy that must be countered with a drastic increase in military spending by NATO countries.”
Chris Hedges | Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction
The fiction of democracy remains useful, not only for corporations, but for our bankrupt liberal class. If the fiction is seriously challenged, liberals will be forced to consider actual resistance, which will be neither pleasant nor easy.
Jim Hightower | Why Can’t Our Economy Promote Equality and Shared Prosperity?
You don’t have to be in “Who’s Who” to know what’s what. For example, if tiny groups of Wall Street bankers, billionaires and their political puppets are allowed to write the rules that govern our economy and elections, guess what? Only bankers, billionaires and puppets will profit from those rules.
Paul Jay Interviews Henry Giroux | Neofascism of the Law and Order Candidate (Video/Transcript)
How do the conditions that inform today’s social and economic struggles differ from those that prevailed in the 1930s, when the United States entered an era of progressive reform? In part, the U.S. today lacks organized labor movements, and the ruling class exhibits no sense of obligation to guarantee the well-being of the general public, cultural critic Henry Giroux tells The Real News Network’s Paul Jay. (Alexander Reed Kelly on Truthdig.com)
Justice Dept Announces It Will End Use of For-Profit Prisons
This announcement comes on the heels of a rather scathing report from the DOJ’s inspector general last week which found the nefarious privately-run facilities had a greater number of safety and security incidents than those run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Chris Hedges | The Illusion of Freedom
Politics in totalitarian societies are entertainment. Reality, because it is complicated, messy and confusing, is banished from the world of mass entertainment. Clichés, stereotypes and uplifting messages that are comforting and self-congratulatory, along with elaborate spectacles, replace fact-based discourse.