“It was the workers in these industries who taught me that there was a systematic conflict between profits and health.… When you start thinking that, when you start to interfere with the forces of production, you’re going to the heart of the beast.” –Tony Mazzocchi, leader of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International (OCAW), who… Continue reading To the Heart of the Beast
No to Barbarism
I was raised in Trump country: a wealthy, metropolitan suburb where the golf club was a safe space for racist, sexist, and homophobic jokes, and I never had more than one Black kid in my class at school. A product of my environment, I recall being supremely disappointed when Bill Clinton was elected, and hearing… Continue reading No to Barbarism
On my return
As the 2012 presidential election geared up, it seems, I lost the stamina to keep a regular political writing habit. With the election of Trump, battle lines have been drawn, and no one can remain silent and not be complicit. I will return to my regular political writing, and do all I can to organize for a better future for all of us.
Prison Profits
“The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws…” -Corrections Corporation of America, in their annual report. Chris Hedges excoriates the company and its… Continue reading Prison Profits
Other consequences, all deleterious, flowed from the militarization of foreign policy. In Afghanistan and the United States, so intimately ensnarled over all these years, the income gap between the rich and everyone else has grown exponentially, in large part because in both countries the rich have made money off war-making, while ordinary citizens have slipped into poverty for lack of jobs and basic services.
-Ann Jones, writing from Afghanistan.
So given this extreme human suffering and repression imposed by the Saudi monarchy in multiple countries, what should the US – the Leader of the Free World and the self-proclaimed Deliverer of Freedom and Democracy – do? To Riedel, the answer is obvious: work even harder, do even more, to strengthen the Saudi regime as well as the neighboring tyrannies in order to crush the “Arab Awakenings” and ensure that democratic revolution cannot succeed in those nations.
-Greenwald skewers another
November 15, 2012
US foreign fighters in Afghanistan under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered 57 casualties in the 8 days ending Nov. 14, as the official casualty total for the Iraq and AfPak wars* rose to 115,797. The total includes 79,461 casualties since the US invaded Iraq in March, 2003 (Operations “Iraqi Freedom” and “New Dawn”), and 36,336 since the… Continue reading November 15, 2012
October 10, 2012
US foreign fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered 63 casualties in the 8 days ending October 10, as the official casualty total for the Iraq and AfPak wars* rose to 115,532. The total includes 79,471 casualties since the US invaded Iraq in March, 2003 (Operations “Iraqi Freedom” and “New Dawn”), and 36,061… Continue reading October 10, 2012
October 2, 2012
US military deaths in the Afghan theater officially reached at least 2,121 today, having passed 2,000 by June 21. The reason the MSM and some sources that should know better are only announcing 2,000 deaths this week is because they count only those who actually died in Afghanistan and exclude those the Pentagon includes who… Continue reading October 2, 2012
September 25, 2012
US military deaths in the Afghan theater officially passed 2,000 by June 21 and are now at least 2,116, but you didn’t know this if you rely on the MSM. They ignore the official Pentagon numbers in favor of the AP–which excludes troops who died (or received wounds or injuries from which they died after… Continue reading September 25, 2012