Most people we call “African American” have more European ancestry than African, Black friends have long informed me. Continue reading
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Displaying ‘inhuman disdain’ for working families, Manchin said child tax credit would be used for drugs
"Sen. Joe Manchin—who is a multimillionaire—doesn't think his poor constituents can be trusted with a little help."
As 36 million families across the U.S. appeared unlikely to receive any further child tax credit payments after the New Year following Sen. Joe Manchin’s refusal to support the Build Back Better Act, progressives on Monday were outraged over reports that the threat to the payments stems from the right-wing senator’s belief that parents might use the money for drugs or other uses he deems unnecessary. Continue reading
Exposed documents from Meadows show Trump involvement in coup attempt
WASHINGTON—Documents and e-mails which Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, provided to the House panel probing the January 6th insurrection and invasion of the U.S. Capitol—an invasion to produce a pro-Trump coup—show Trump’s involvement in planning the strategy to try to overturn his 2020 defeat and keep himself in the Oval Office, if not planning the insurrection itself. Continue reading
Psst: You want to know what’s really driving inflation? (Not what the Fed thinks it is.)
Last week, the Fed’s policy committee announced it would both end its bond-buying program and likely raise interest rates sooner than had been expected. “Inflation is more persistent and higher, and that the risk of it remaining higher for longer has grown,” Fed chair Jerome Powell explained. 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
Manufacturing contempt for Assange: How the media made WikiLeaks founder into a scapegoat
The High Court in London has upheld the U.S. government’s appeal to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a key step towards his rendition to the United States. The Australian publisher faces up to 175 years in prison once he sets foot on American soil. Continue reading
Are we standing on the edge of a grand new progressive era?
Do we stand on the edge of a grand new progressive era, with good wages for all, racial and gender equality and justice, and a reduction of the political power of reactionary forces in America? Or will the next president gleefully overthrow American democracy, shutter the free press, and imprison those who object? Continue reading
How a group of Starbucks workers emerged victorious in their union fight
It is hugely significant that even one café out of thousands in the iconic Starbucks coffee chain has beaten back the company’s union-busting tactics to choose collective power in the workplace.
The iconic American coffee chain, Starbucks, employs hundreds of thousands of people in nearly 9,000 cafés nationwide. And yet, the news that a handful of Starbucks employees at one café in Buffalo, New York, recently voted to join Workers United—an affiliate of SEIU—made headlines nationally. The New York Times called it a “big symbolic win for labor,” while the Washington Post hailed it as a “watershed union vote.” Social media feeds were replete with joyous posts celebrating the vote. The café, located on Elmwood Avenue, was the only one out of three union-voting Starbucks locations in Buffalo that successfully chose to unionize. Continue reading
Rare unionizing opportunity in big box and retail chains
This is the most opportune time for millions of workers in Big Box retail stores and fast-food outlets to form unions. McDonald’s, Walmart, Amazon, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, and other giant chains are having trouble finding enough workers. Some of these companies are even paying signing bonuses and upping low pay. Continue reading
The UN’s human rights failure
Will the UN assume responsibility for failing to protect civilians as governments waged war and plunder?
On the occasion of International Human Rights Day which was marked on December 10, the UN pledged to accelerate the implementation of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), without taking into consideration the various global inequalities which make generic implementation impossible. Continue reading
Is the global mass psychosis a result of COVID and the far-right?
Yes, and drastic action must be taken to end it
“It” is happening with increasing frequency at school board meetings, supermarkets, the front doors of homes, and even onboard in-flight passenger jets. “It” strikes men, women, teens, blue and white collar employees, retirees and young people, and members of the military. What is “it?” “It” is a worldwide psychosis that has caused people to lose any sense of propriety, turning some into virtual mindless and often violent zombies who are willing to put others and themselves in danger. Continue reading
Dems face 2022 nightmare, critics warn, if student debt payments restart and child credit ends
These are policy choices," said one economic justice group. "We don't have to choose this. All of this is 100% unnecessary and avoidable."
Progressives are spelling out for the Democratic Party the disastrous implications that are likely to come with the government’s possible failure to extend the enhanced child tax credit right as the White House plans to require tens of millions of people to restart their federal student loan payments—warning that the 2022 midterms could be “brutal” if the party imposes new financial burdens on working families. Continue reading
Chile is at the political crossroads: Social renewal or decades of painful neoliberal policy
“If [Augusto] Pinochet were alive, he would vote for me,” said José Antonio Kast in 2017, during the Chilean presidential election when he ran as an independent candidate. This was an especially provocative statement made by him out of the many he has made over the years—he had also said that “Chileans need God,” during his campaign in 2017, while proposing religious teachers in all public schools in Chile. Continue reading
Current dispute over ICBMs is a quarrel over how to fine-tune the doomsday machinery
At the level of national policy, nuclear derangement is so normalized that few give it a second thought. Yet normal does not mean sane.
Nuclear weapons are at the pinnacle of what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the madness of militarism.” If you’d rather not think about them, that’s understandable. But such a coping strategy has limited value. And those who are making vast profits from preparations for global annihilation are further empowered by our avoidance. Continue reading
Don’t blame benefits for inflation—blame the global economy
Ending child care subsidies won’t restock store shelves. A fairer, more sustainable global economy might.
Headlines are screaming that inflation is here to stay. Continue reading
Why we must defend Julian Assange
Julian Assange is one of the political prisoners that the US claims not to have. The UK is keeping him locked up for the U.S. Everyone who believes in press freedom and who opposes imperialism must be a staunch Assange defender.
December 10 is International Human Rights Day. It is always a sham holiday for the United States, which locks up its own people at rates exceeding those of every other country, and routinely makes war against the rest of the world. In 2021, the date was treated as even more of a mockery than in the past. Joe Biden convened a bizarre democracy summit, wherein he declared other nations good or bad based on whether they go along with the dictates of the U.S. empire. Although it was in London where the U.S. behaved in a particularly shameful manner, working with the United Kingdom to secure the right to extradite Julian Assange. Continue reading
EPA sued over refusal to close deadly pesticide loophole decimating honey bees
"While EPA fiddles, grave harm to bees and other pollinators continues," said one advocacy group.
After waiting nearly five years for the Environmental Protection Agency to respond to a petition calling for the closing of a regulatory loophole which has proven deadly for honey bee colonies—spelling disaster for farmers’ crops, food security, and biodiversity—two advocacy groups are suing the agency and demanding officials take immediate action to end the use of harmful pesticides known as neonics. Continue reading
“Trump’s next coup has already begun: January 6 was practice.”
“Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun…” is the title of an article in the Atlantic, just out, by Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of many groundbreaking exposés. He describes the various maneuvers that Trump-driven Republican operatives and state legislators are developing to overturn elections whose voters elected Democrats from states with Republican governors and state legislatures. Georgia fit that profile in 2020—electing two Democratic senators in a state with a Republican legislature and governor. Continue reading
How do we stop the neocons from starting another disaster in Ukraine?
If anything, Washington’s neoconservatives have an unerring instinct for survival. Having brought about multiple disasters in the two decades since 9/11—from the Iraq War to the twin debacles in Libya and Syria—the neoconservatives seem to have perfected the art of failing up. Continue reading
The planet is not a dumping ground
Petrochemical companies are racing to make more plastic—and force poor countries to become landfills for it.
In a world that’s clogged and choking with a massive overdose of plastic trash, you’ll be heartened to learn that governments and industries are teaming up to respond forcefully to this planetary crisis. Continue reading
Whales will save the world’s climate—unless the military destroys them first
The U.S. military is famous for being the single largest consumer of petroleum products in the world and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Its carbon emissions exceed those released by “more than 100 countries combined.” Continue reading
‘Absolutely horrific’: Candle factory bosses threatened firings if workers left ahead of tornado
Economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called the revelations from the new reporting "beyond horrific."
Multiple employees of the Mayfield, Kentucky, candle factory that was leveled by a devastating tornado late Friday said that supervisors threatened firings if workers left their shifts early amid warnings of the impending storm, according to new reporting by NBC News. Continue reading
On ‘gassing the Arabs’ and other diseases: Is Israel a ‘sick society’?
For whatever reason, some mistakenly perceive the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, as liberal, progressive and even ‘pro-Palestinian’. Of course, none of this is true. This misconstrued depiction of an essentially Zionist and anti-Palestinian newspaper tells of a much bigger story of how confusing Israeli politics is, and how equally confused many of us are in understanding the Israeli political discourse. Continue reading
Why the internet itself is a major environmental problem
If the internet were a country, it would be the sixth biggest user of electricity.
The paradox of combating climate change is that the extent of the emergency extends far beyond the actions taken by individuals to mitigate the climate crisis, yet collective action is what is most required to address this issue. There are so many examples of this dilemma—from recycling to how power is being generated, to what people should consume. In each case, broad-based action is required to shift the dial, and while it might seem insurmountable, every little bit counts. A great example of this sentiment in action can be found in the growing field of eco-friendly web design. 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
In praise of progressive bravery
I write in praise of bravery. Your bravery for paying attention to the news, for reading and sharing this story. For not looking away. Continue reading
‘A gut punch’: Biden Interior Dept quietly plans to strip protections from key species
"We'd hoped that the horrific anti-wildlife tactics so often employed during the Trump era had ended, but it appears we were wrong," said one conservationist.
Conservation advocates accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of “deep rot within the agency” Monday as they condemned the Biden administration’s plan to weaken or eliminate protections for several endangered species—a step that officials appear to be taking without any consideration for the threats the climate crisis poses to the animals. Continue reading
It’s no mystery: Joe Manchin represents the monied interests and nobody else
Joe Manchin, Republicans, and the Supreme Court are shafting working Americans.
The next ten days may well offer the last opportunity to enact Biden’s agenda, because once Congress returns from Christmas break it’s the new year—which is a danger zone for new legislation. Even when Democrats control all three branches—as they do now and did during first two years of Obama and Clinton—the second year is perilous because of the overwhelming gravitational pull of the midterm elections (I have a searing memory of Bill Clinton unable to summon a Democratic majority in 1994 for his healthcare bill). Continue reading
There’s a nonsensical propaganda campaign to make China look bad in Uganda
On November 25, 2021, an article appeared in Uganda’s national newspaper the Daily Monitor with the headline: “Uganda surrenders airport for China cash.” The article pointed to “toxic clauses” in the loan agreement signed by the Ugandan government with the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China on March 31, 2015. The loan—worth $207 million at 2 percent interest—was for the expansion of the Entebbe International Airport—a project under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Work on the expansion of the airport began in May 2016. Continue reading
Rethinking work—and life
Americans are quitting bad jobs in record numbers because they’re rethinking what matters.
As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story. Over the years, though, I’ve learned when to quit tying myself into mental knots over sentence construction. Instead, I step back and rethink where my story is going. 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
Wishing everyone Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Intrepid Report will resume publishing January 10
Posted on December 22, 2021 by Bev Conover
I want to thank everyone for their support this year. Intrepid Report would not exist without your help. Continue reading →