It won’t be business as usual for very much longer. The mantle of world power is quite possibly changing hands within my life time. Lovely. Alfred McCoy tackles the large geopolitical issues that we will all be facing in the future. The Bipartisan Nature of U.S. Decline America’s decline
Continue readingTag: Tom’s Dispatch
Dead Wild Roses: The Grim Paradox of a Nation – Poverty, Wealth & The Black Panthers in the USA.
Liz Theoharis writing for Tom’s Dispatch on poverty and the solidarity and ingenuity of the American people when it came to helping the poor in their country. The underclasses in the USA have begun to organize again, I just hope it isn’t too late because the road before them
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Karen Greenberg on Covid-19 and the Trump Administration
Very happy to be in Canada for this particular emergency. The US administration was all over the map has the pandemic started and is paying the price now for having a doofus as head of state. Long-Simmering Realities In many ways, the current crisis has, of course, just
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Great Reckoning – Andrew J. Bacevich
An unhappy view of what probably is to come as we come to terms with notion that the institutions in our societies can no longer adequately serve the needs of the people. “Here, then, is a very partial listing of some of the most important of those signals then readily
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: On Leaving the US Military – Danny Sjursen
A soldiers exit essay on leaving the US war machine. What I Won’t Be Missing “It’s time to wave goodbye to a litany of absurdity that I witnessed in the institution to which I dedicated my adult life. Some peers, even friends, may call this heresy — a disgruntled
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Learning the Power of Lies – Arnold Isaacs
What’s going on in the US is chilling by nature. The democratic underpinnings of their society are being being eroded at frightening rate as misinformation, lies, and propaganda replace the space once reserved for reasonable public discourse. This process of disintegration isn’t new, but is hastened by the current
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Trump’s “Infrastructure” Plan Pump Up the Pentagon By William D. Hartung
Why would rational people choose the least efficient method of priming the economic pump? I’m sure it has much to do with making the the correct people and factions in society benefit from the policies put in place. The notion of the ‘public good’ seems almost a quaint notion in
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Get Used to It – The American Empire in Chaos
Some historical context By Tom Englehardt showing the lead up to the bright and cheery future we now inhabit. “In the end, those seeds, first planted in Afghan and Pakistani soil in 1979, led to the attacks of September 11, 2001. That day was the very definition of
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Current Gilded Age – Nasty Ending Forthcoming
A regulated economy may not perform at peak performance, but rather to its credit has built in stability and resilience in order to mute and calm the wider variances of the business cycle. The rules and regulations that govern Banking and Finance are there for a reason – to protect
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky on the Erosion of Democracy
If I were to have just one wish to come true, it would be that people would take the time to think about the world they live in. I realize that reflection and critical something is not always possible, but if we’re in the wish zone I think it could
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: When A Voice Tells You You’ll Never Be Enough – Mattea Kramer
Welcome to the particular mental hell that many women inhabit. In an insightful article on Tom’s Dispatch by Mattea Kramer we see how the negativity toward women in society internalizes itself and become women’s own inner self-critical voice. “Girls observe and absorb such double standards, as well as
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: What is to be done? – The de-sovietization of America – William Astore
The conclusion of an essay written by William Astore featured on Tom’s Dispatch. As a member of the minority left, one of the questions frequently asked of us is well then what is your solution to the problems – criticizing is one thing actually putting forward a plan is quite
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Tom Engelhardt – Government Reformation – But not the good kind.
The Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision reverberates strongly in my consciousness when I read articles like this one from Tom’s Dispatch. I am still at a loss as how to compute the base equation of $ = Free Speech, because, well… it doesn’t. Certainly money grants access, but it begets
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Bombs Away – Tom Engelhardt
Insightful essays not your bag? A window looking into current events as they happen, and not how the handlers say they happen a bit too much? Then don’t subscribe to Tom’s Dispatch. This excerpt from ‘Bombs Away’ by Tom Engelhardt “1. Success and Failure: Without a hint of exaggeration, you
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: America “B” – John Feffer
Who doesn’t like to kick back and watch the US primary election campaign? I just scan the highlights, but John Feffer is big picture prognosticating with his recent article on Tom’s Dispatch titled Donald Trump and America B. The article examines the disaffected people who make up America B and who have bought into his […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Why We Need to Stay Connected to Reality – Nick Turse
Our society is being influenced negatively by the consumerist culture that we, collectively, have taken our hands off the tiller and have let the market decide what is best for us and our cultures. The idea that we can consume our way to happiness, well-being, or even a more just society would not compute […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: How Not to Audit the Pentagon – William Hartung
I keep thinking about all of the rhetoric about how wasteful social spending is, and how programs for the poor are being taken advantage of, then I read something like this… then I get mad. “From spending $150 million on private villas for a handful of personnel in Afghanistan to blowing $2.7 billion on an […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth – Dilip Hiro on India and Pakistan
Getting stuck on the US election race? Tired of hearing about how the authoritarian left is, yet again, stifling free speech? How about some Nuclear Armageddon to cleanse the palate? Dilip Hiro takes us to South East Asia and the conflict between India and Pakistan. “Undoubtedly, for nearly two decades, the most dangerous place on […]
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