Chris Hedges Missoula, MT 3 February 2014 The demonic Captain Ahab in Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick represents a quest for power and domination that is a death wish. Hubris will doom Ahab and his Pequod crew, all perish except for Ishmael. Is there a larger lesson to be learned? Is the United… Continue reading →
Richard Wolff Brecht Forum, New York, NY 9 October 2012 Cascading economic problems and crises, coupled with dysfunctional political responses, have plunged many societies into deepening turmoil. Capitalism, the dominant economic system of our time, has once again become the subject of criticism and… Continue reading →
Noam Chomsky Denver, Colorado 7 May 2013 The Magna Carta is the foundational document of the legal system. It crucially asserted that law is sovereign, not the king. Today, the term rule of law is invoked by whoever is in the White House. But you have to wonder what do they mean? There is one set of… Continue reading →
Thomas Linzey Eugene, Oregon 2 March 2013 Communities across the country, trying to stop a wide range of threats and unwanted projects such as gas drilling and fracking, mining, pipelines, factory farming, sewage sludging, landfills, coal shipments and GMOs, all run into the same problem: they don’t… Continue reading →
Barbara Ehrenreich Lecture, then interview by David Barsamian (This event was presented by the Lannan Foundation.) Santa Fe, New Mexico 13 March 2013 The rise in New York’s poverty rate as a result of the ongoing recession has pushed nearly half of the city’s population into the ranks of the poor or… Continue reading →
by Robert L. Borosage Washington’s obsession with deficits is illogical for two reasons: first, there is no sign of accelerating inflation; interest rates are near record lows, as global investors seek shelter in US securities from economic turmoil abroad. We will never have a better opportunity to… Continue reading →
Juliet Schor Northampton, MA July 28, 2008 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Juliet Schor speak for herself here. Juliet Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard in the Department of Economics. She is author of many… Continue reading →
by Dave Lindorff Summer 2011 (appearing in Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank) When Barack Obama was running for president, back in 2008, he was pretty definite about his seemingly progressive position on Social Security. While he… Continue reading →
Glenn Greenwald Socialism 2012 Rosemont, IL June 28, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Glenn Greenwald speak for himself here. Glenn Greenwald is an attorney and the author of How Would a Patriot Act?, Great American Hypocrites, and Liberty and Justice for Some. He is the… Continue reading →
Morris Berman Elliot Bay Bookstore Seattle, WA November 4, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Morris Berman speak for himself here. From the boarded-up storefronts to foreclosed homes to the homeless and unemployed, the signs of decay in the U.S. are all too apparent. The… Continue reading →
by Paul Buchheit Appearing in Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter Reprinted from CounterPunch. Paul Buchheit teaches Economic Inequality at DePaul University. He is the founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (Us Against Greed, Pay Up Now, and Rapping History) and the editor… Continue reading →
walmart's effect What effect does Walmart have on American jobs? Thanks to Shy Girl for this infographic. Continue reading →
Max Rameau Eugene, OR April 19, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Max Rameau speak for himself here. Max Rameau is a community organizer. He is Executive Director of Movement Catalyst. He helped establish Take Back the Land, which organizes resistance to foreclosures and… Continue reading →
By Jack A. Smith, Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter editor Less than six months before the November presidential elections in an exceptionally distressed United States the narrow, unpleasant parameters of political possibility are emerging. Two alternatives confront the American people, both to the… Continue reading →
Michael Moore New York, NY March 17, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Michael Moore speak for himself here. Michael Moore first brought his humorous and progressive analysis to mainstream audiences with the award-winning documentary Roger & Me. His Bowling for Columbine won an… Continue reading →
Gar Alperovitz Interviewed by David Barsamian Cambridge, MA January 19, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Gar Alperovitz speak for himself here. Gar Alperovitz is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. He is… Continue reading →
interview with Richard Wolff by David Barsaminan New York, NY December 29, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Richard Wolff speak for himself here. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor… Continue reading →
Check out this brief and crucial history of the United States… In less than 23 minutes, you’ll get the big picture. Let your life be a friction to stop the machine. Continue reading →
by Richard Wolff Santa Fe, NM September 13, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Richard Wolff deliver this address here. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor at the New School in New York… Continue reading →
by Richard Wolff Interviewed by David Barsamian Santa Fe, NM September 12, 2011 available from Alternative Radio Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor at the New School in New York. He is the author of… Continue reading →
by Fred Nagel, Rhinebeck, NY in a letter to the Woodstock Times September 22, 2011 Even for a politician who has made his career out of serving the rich and well connected, these must seem like dismal times. Back in Chicago, all Obama had to do was to obey the corrupt Democratic machine. And he did… Continue reading →
Part 2: Problems ahead for Obama? by Jack S. Smith, Activist Newsletter The New Yorker magazine published a memorable front cover a year after President Barack Obama assumed office. It was a four-panel cartoon-like drawing by artist Barry Blitt of a man walking on water, a reference to the Apostle… Continue reading →
Part 1: What both parties are up to by Jack S. Smith, Activist Newsletter When was it that the most extremely disturbed inmates seized control of the madhouse known as the American political system? We know they are wielding decisive influence within the two-party structure by their destructive… Continue reading →
by Warren E. Buffett I have some comments at the end. Our leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched. While the poor and middle class fight for us… Continue reading →
Here’s from my friend Fred Nagel Now is the right time to revisit the “lesser of two evils” theory of governance. As destructive as Obama has been to the interests of working people, the Republicans always appear to be just a little bit worse. And so it goes for the next election cycle, American… Continue reading →
by Stephen Bezruchka, speech delivered at Olympia Community Center Olympia, WA 29 May 2010 available from Alternative Radio Stephen Bezruchka is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. He worked for many years as an emergency physician in Seattle. His… Continue reading →
Over the past century, America’s rich made their millions and billions through the use of public assets shared by everyone. By virtue of those profits, they have not only a moral, but a rational obligation to pay more for the upkeep of public services. See this article. And see this article by… Continue reading →
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The problems today are not the the evil actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. Linda Milazzo: Peace and non-violent solutions are beyond the capacity of this US government. We The People must govern. As an American, it is my… Continue reading →
The liberal, progressive base appears to have no breaking point with the Democrats here in Washington. And that’s true for—that’s also true for the liberal intelligentsia. They have no—when you ask them, “Do you have any breaking point? How bad do these Democrats have to be, even though the… Continue reading →
by Ravi Batra in Truthout About eight years ago, there was frenzied and furious talk about WMDs, or weapons of mass destruction. Both the frenzy and the fury came from President George W. Bush and his administration, prior to the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and soon thereafter. The president’s… Continue reading →
See Democracy Now!. I find it tragic that we’re talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security in this environment, when we, first of all, don’t really need a budget-balancing plan right now. The budget-balancing plan we need in the future is really related to the rise in healthcare costs… Continue reading →
Check out Democracy Now! and ALEC exposed for insights on just how it seems the John Birch Society is finally winning. Barry Goldwater and Robert Welch would be very pleased. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), formed nearly four decades ago, has become, in its own words, “the nation’s… Continue reading →
by Robert Jensen, speech delivered at the Monkey Wrench Bookstore, Austin, TX, 10 February 2011 available from Alternative Radio Robert Jensen is professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Citizens of the Empire, The Heart of Whiteness, and All My Bones Shake… Continue reading →
This is from Al-Jazeera English by William I. Robinson, professor of sociology and global studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara: The global economic crisis and the attack on immigrant rights are bound together in a web of 21st century fascism. “The crisis of global capitalism is… Continue reading →
Check out this article in Rolling Stone, with illustrative graphs: The budget has more of what Americans say they want — new taxes on the rich and cuts to defense — than either the GOP’s or the president’s budget. And it has none of what Americans say they hate: changes to the social compact that’s… Continue reading →
See this short video. This is how a president should talk: To hell with wars, let’s feed and clothe the world with all the military money. How far we have fallen since the New Deal! Continue reading →
Check out this little video (with text printed out) and then the whole 14-page analysis by “Mr. Y”. We are underinvesting in the real sources of national power – our youth, our infrastructure and our economy. The United States sees the world through the lens of threats, while failing to understand… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges, a speech he made at Union Square in New York City in April 15, during a protest outside a branch office of the Bank of America: We stand today before the gates of one of our temples of finance. It is a temple where greed and profit are the highest good, where self-worth is… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges in truthdig: The uprisings in the Middle East, the unrest that is tearing apart nations such as the Ivory Coast, the bubbling discontent in Greece, Ireland and Britain and the labor disputes in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio presage the collapse of globalization. They presage a… Continue reading →
from Democracy Now!: President Obama has failed the American people. He hasn’t led. His job in our constitutional system is to help show a way forward and help to explain, help to say why we need to go this way, not to stand in the back and then announce how historic an agreement is…. That’s not his… Continue reading →
by Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz in Vanity Fair: John Steinbeck: “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” But maybe not forever… Americans have been watching protests against… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges at truthdig. Here is a suitable introduction to the article by Veterans for Peace activist Tarak Kauff: $$$$ for wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, $$ $ to support Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestine, $$$$ in bailouts to make those at the top of… Continue reading →
by Stephen Lerner in The Nation: “Beck, right-wingers and Wall Street sympathizers went ballistic because they knew the ideas I talked about are far from being a secret leftist conspiracy; in fact, they’re in sync with the thinking of most Americans. In my talk, I raised a very simple yet powerful… Continue reading →
Today is the 100th anniversary of this tragedy (travesty). Today preservation organizations, historians, artists, and labor activists commemorate the event, which inspired New Deal legislation protecting workers (including Social Security), now under attack. This is an excellent documentary. Of… Continue reading →
Here are several places to commemorate this tragedy on its centennial: The Nation and NPR1 and NPR2 and NPR3 and NPR4. Here’s from a comment of the excellent Nation article: All of the rhetoric about dirty theiving unions cannot stand the truth: Corporations will not police themselves when it comes… Continue reading →
by Eric Tucker From Associated Press March 20, 2011 2:38 AM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) More than 100 anti-war protesters, including the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, were arrested outside the White House in demonstrations marking the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The protesters… Continue reading →
Check out this, and see the video of Carlin saying these things in 2005: The reason education sucks and will never, ever, ever be fixed is because the owners of this country don’t want that. … I’m talking about the real owners, the big, wealthy business interests that control things and make all the… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy, NY 15 October 2010 from Alternative Radio (www.alternativeradio.org) Chris Hedges is an award-winning journalist who has covered wars in the Balkans, the Middle East and Central America. He writes a weekly column for Truthdig.org and is a senior… Continue reading →
Now going around on Facebook and elsewhere: A CEO, a tea party member, and a union worker are all sitting at a table when a plate with a dozen cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in eleven of the cookies. When the other two look at him in surprise, the… Continue reading →
by Paul Cienfuegos speech delivered in Portland, Oregon, 26 February 2010 from Alternative Radio (www.alternativeradio.org) Paul Cienfuegos is a community organizer and activist. He co-founded Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County in Northern California an organization which works to dismantle… Continue reading →