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Could Putin be failing because of a lack of democracy?
Russia’s President Putin isn’t an irrational actor; he and his administration are suffering from a deficiency of democracy, and that’s why he’s making terrible decisions. Seriously. Follow me on this. Continue reading
Worshiping markets, genuflecting to grand fortune
Today’s ‘utopians’ have reserved heaven on Earth for the richest among us.
Our conventional political wisdom, here in the United States, tends to see utopians as lefty egalitarians of one sort or another, clueless reformers and revolutionaries who just don’t understand how the “real world” operates. But today’s most clueless utopians, suggest recent reflections from political economist Abby Innes, actually hail from the right end of our political spectrum. These utopians see the marketplace as humanity’s only “sphere of true freedom” and government as the most direct threat to that freedom, an outlook on the world that most typically goes by the label of “neoliberalism.” Continue reading
Nicaragua in the multipolar world
The U.S. regime change effort in Nicaragua has failed. The people are determined to assert their rights of self-determination and the U.S. is not the only player on the world stage.
The United States and the European Union announced new sanctions on the day that Daniel Ortega was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua. The move was not surprising, given that the United States congress passed the RENACER Act one week before elections which were held on November 7. Continue reading
The plague that killed capitalism
In March 2020 when the COVID pandemic was first tightening its deadly grip on America and the newscasters were looking horrified as they read the figures they were getting, a phrase flashed through my head: “The Plague that Killed Capitalism.” Continue reading
The Omicron shame: Why is the world punishing instead of helping Africa?
The decision by several governments across the globe to institute travel bans on seven African countries, starting on November 27, due to the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, was perceived to be hasty in the eyes of some and fully justifiable on medical grounds, in the view of others. However, the matter is hardly that of a difference of opinion. Continue reading
On abortion and reproductive rights: Not enough (from) men
I recently saw a post shared on Instagram regarding abortion rights in which the person argued that there were not enough men coming forward to say how they were saved from unwanted fatherhood because of an abortion. The point of the post was to open the question of solidarity to those who actually stand against abortion restriction laws, and for those people to come forward with their support into the open. It’s one thing to say that I stand with something, some cause; but it’s another thing to relate an actual experience to it—to find its connective tissue back to the cause and the words themselves. So I wanted to tell a story that is at least partially mine to tell. Continue reading
The judicial kidnapping of Julian Assange
“Let us look at ourselves, if we have the courage, to see what is happening to us”—Jean-Paul Sartre Continue reading
Democrats must reclaim their brand as the “Freedom Party”
There was a time when Democrats called their party “the Party of Freedom.” Continue reading
The politics of moral outrage
It seems like a good moment for a little reflection on the past couple of years. A lot has happened, and a lot hasn’t. What has happened, among other things, has been a whole lot of police brutality, racially-motivated killings by police, a whole lot of media coverage of this sort of thing, a whole lot of protests and riots, and a whole lot more media coverage of that. What hasn’t happened—what hasn’t been reflected in all of this—are significant political or economic changes that might begin to address the ever-deepening inequities in this extremely polarized society. Continue reading
We do exist: Why the Palestinian voice should take center stage
At a recent New York event, the president of the Foreign Press Association, Ian Williams, declared, before an approving audience, that it is time “to reclaim the narrative on Palestine”. Continue reading
The high stakes of the U.S.-Russia confrontation over Ukraine
A report in Covert Action Magazine from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine describes grave fears of a new offensive by Ukrainian government forces, after increased shelling, a drone strike by a Turkish-built drone and an attack on Staromaryevka, a village inside the buffer zone established by the 2014-15 Minsk Accords. Continue reading
NYC taxi drivers took on predatory lenders—and won
This worker-driven organizing victory could pave the way for future debt relief.
After a two-week hunger strike and two months of sit-ins, dozens of taxi drivers in New York City hosted a long-awaited celebration outside City Hall on November 10. Continue reading
Censorship is the last gasp of the liberal class
Truthful, honest, and independent journalism and analysis is anathema to a social order that has little else to offer humanity but endless war and austerity.
On November 8, 2021, Twitter locked my account for a period of one day for responding to corporate media darling and Russiagate fanatic Keith Olbermann’s slanderous reply to journalist Wyatt Reed’s coverage of the Nicaraguan election. The flagged tweet simply restated Olbermann’s question, replacing “whore for a dictator” with “whoring for the American oligarchy.” Twitter demanded that I delete the tweet or send a time-consuming, lengthy appeal with no assurances as to if or when my sentence in “Twitter jail” would end. This prompted me to delete the tweet and wait for the 12-hour suspension to end. Keith Olbermann’s account went unscathed. Continue reading
Democrats can avoid midterm election disaster by running on their actual agenda
Democrats in Virginia can’t say they didn’t see it coming. Complaints at the gas pump and the rumbling at local school board meetings outside Richmond and in Northern Virginia foretold Election Day trouble. A massive right-wing media offensive spent the summer and fall pumping tales of Democratic inaction and Republican culture war fiction into the minds of voters, particularly white women. By November, many were convinced that the Democratic Party simply wasn’t delivering on the things that really mattered. Continue reading
Heroes or parasites: Europe’s self-serving politics on refugees
Language is politics and politics is power. This is why the misuse of language is particularly disturbing, especially when the innocent and vulnerable pay the price. Continue reading
What does India get out of being part of ‘The Quad’?
Australia has joined the U.S. and UK games to contain China, leaving India unclear in the Quad and isolated in Asia. Tied to the waning imperial power of the U.S., India is gradually losing strategic autonomy.
The recent Quad leaders meeting in the White House on September 24 appears to have shifted focus away from its original framing as a security dialogue between four countries, the United States, India, Japan and Australia. Instead, the United States seems to be moving much closer to Australia as a strategic partner and providing it with nuclear submarines. Continue reading
Disorderly retreat from Afghanistan: The U.S. has become an overextended military empire posing a serious threat to its long-term security
In 1987, British historian Paul Kennedy (1945- ) wrote a geopolitical book about how great powers rise and fall, in which he studied how economic and military factors can accompany or cause previously dominant nations to lose their great power status. His main conclusion is that sooner or later a great hegemonic power will become overextended and its economy will struggle to keep its big military machine going. Indeed, an empire can increase its resources by launching wars abroad, at least for a while. However, sooner or later, a situation of permanent war and the military occupation of foreign lands result in more costs than benefits. Continue reading
Will Americans who were right on Afghanistan still be ignored?
America’s corporate media are ringing with recriminations over the humiliating U.S. military defeat in Afghanistan. But very little of the criticism goes to the root of the problem, which was the original decision to militarily invade and occupy Afghanistan in the first place. Continue reading
Remembering the great scientific crusader who showed that no biological basis for race exists—Richard Lewontin
Lewontin fought a lifelong battle against racism, imperialism and capitalist oppression.
On July 4, Richard Lewontin, the dialectical biologist, Marxist and activist, died at the age of 92, just three days after the death of his wife of more than 70 years, Mary Jane. He was one of the founders of modern biology who brought together three different disciplines—statistics, molecular biology and evolutionary biology—that mark the discipline today. In doing so, he not only battled crude racism masquerading as science, but also helped shed light on what science really is. In this sense, he belongs to the rare group of scientists who are equally at home in the laboratory and while talking about science and ideology at a philosophical level. Lewontin is a popular exponent of what science is, and more pertinently, what it is not. Continue reading
Canada is waging an all-front legal war against indigenous people
After mass graves full of Indigenous children have been found, how can Canada justify ongoing land theft?
Canada is developing a new image: one of burning churches, toppling statues, and mass graves. There are thousands more unmarked graves, thousands more Indigenous children killed at residential schools, remaining to be unearthed. There can be no denying that this is Canada, and it has to change. But can Canada transform itself for the better? If the revelation of the mass killing of Indigenous children is to lead to any actual soul-searching and any meaningful change, the first order of business is for Canada to stop its all-front war against First Nations. Much of that war is taking place through the legal system. Continue reading
COVID is resurging. So is Trumpian politics.
Despair is worse after a brief period of hope. I don’t know about you, but I was elated earlier this spring when it seemed as if Trump and COVID were gone, and Biden seemed surprisingly able to get the nation rapidly back on track. Continue reading
If you grew up with the U.S. blockade as a Cuban, you might understand the recent protests differently
During the early morning of July 17, Johana Tablada joined tens of thousands of Cubans as they gathered along the Malecón boulevard in Havana to stand with the Cuban Revolution. “We are human beings who live, work, suffer, and struggle for a better Cuba,” she told us. “We are not bots or troll farms or anything like that.” She referred to what has been called the Bay of Tweets, a social media campaign developed in Miami, Florida, that attempted to inflame Cuba’s social problems into a political crisis. Continue reading
Republicans believe lying will make it so—and they may be right
But a party morally corrupted by Donald Trump and its own rotten behavior must not stand.
I had a friend who was a pathological liar. I do not use that term lightly; he really was. We met in college and then through an odd set of circumstances wound up working for the same television station in New York—in fact, our offices were right next door to each other. Continue reading
Cuba reflects Fidel’s redoubtable spirit
Hostile to what just societies hold dear, establishment media march in lockstep with flagrantly illegal US/Western policies. Continue reading
Scenario for US & NATO invasion of Crimea and origins of American hatred of Russia
The United States has a very predictable prelude to any war that it seeks to conduct. The first to fight is the US Treasury, Wall Street, and the economic and financial instruments of US national power. Russia is currently under US sanctions for annexing Crimea and, perhaps, for just existing. A long roster of countries—China, Venezuela, and Iran, for example—and individuals are on the US Treasury sanctions roster, so many that the US might just as well sanction the entire world except for NATO members (maybe that is coming). Continue reading
Family separation law: Israel’s demographic war on Palestine intensifies
When the Israeli Knesset (parliament) failed to renew what is commonly referred to as the Family Reunification Law, news reports and analyses misrepresented the story altogether. The even split of 59 MKs voting in favor of the law and 59 against it gave the erroneous impression that Israeli lawmakers are equally divided over the right of Palestinians to obtain permanent residency status or citizenship in Israel through marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading
“Once, there were forests . . .”
The state of the forests, deforestation, and what we can do about it
Up until about the Industrial Revolution, deforestation—if it could be called that—used to be a not unnatural consequence of man’s need for timber, the expansion of human settlements, and slash-and-burn agriculture which has been practised since the Neolithic Age and is still used by indigeous or nomadic peoples and settlers. Forests have been cleared “to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.” Further and other drivers of deforestation vary from one geographical region to another. Continue reading
Why America can’t have “nice things”
Some time back a woman living in Sweden, “Caroline” @SweResistance on Twitter, posted a thread that said: “I live in Sweden. We have social security, affordable health care, strict gun laws, 5 weeks paid annual leave, 1 year maternity leave, etc. And no, we’re not a communist country, and not even strictly socialistic but socio-democratic. And our freedom is not inhibited. Continue reading
A few words to ponder
In a world ravaged by a deadly viral pandemic and a nation recovering from a violent coup attempt, the words of famed science fiction writer Philip K. Dick are prescient. Continue reading
On ‘conflict’, ‘peace’ and ‘genocide’: Time for new language on Palestine and Israel
On May 25, famous American actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted an apology for suggesting that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza. Continue reading
A People’s Vaccine against a mutating virus and neoliberal rule
A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that worries about the COVID pandemic in the United States are at their lowest level since it began. Only half of Americans are either “very worried” (15%) or “somewhat worried” (35%) about the virus, while the other half are “not very worried” (30%) or “not worried at all” (20%). Continue reading
War crimes, mental molestation and language rape
Posted on March 23, 2022 by Frank Scott
The incredible market for human slaughter called war existed thousands of years ago but it was a corner grocery store compared to the multi-trillion dollar moral sewer that represents modern mass murder. Continue reading →