budget

Hillary Clinton’s Pay-for-Play Reality

Whatever one thinks about Hillary Clinton’s sincerity when she professes progressive values, the undeniable reality is that she has immersed herself for decades in the corrupting sludge of Official Washington and its sleazy pay-for-play schemes with Wall Street and other power centers, as JP Sottile explains. By JP Sottile It was supposed to be a…

Who Would Dr. King Endorse?

Hillary Clinton won endorsements from Congressional Black Caucus members while civil rights legend Harry Belafonte came out for Bernie Sanders. But another question is who would Martin Luther King Jr. have supported since he – like Sanders – advocated for “democratic socialism,” as Jeff Cohen recalls. By Jeff Cohen Corporate mainstream media have sanitized and…

Inventing the Right’s ‘Metanarrative’

For decades, the Koch Brothers have funded a massive propaganda operation to disparage what democracy can do when a society pulls together and to glorify a “greed is good” narrative promising great benefits if capitalism reigns free. But the results have been good only for a privileged few, as Michael Winship describes. By Michael Winship…

How Washington’s New Rich Live

The twin explosions of post-9/11 national security extravagance and Citizens United political spending bonanza have reshaped Washington — not only in its political outlook but physically, with this New Class preferring lavish McMansions to show off their newfound wealth, as Mike Lofgren describes. By Mike Lofgren In 1927, H.L. Mencken rode by train through the…

The Meaning Behind the Sanders Surge

What is most startling about the excited response to Sen. Sanders’s campaign is that millions of Americans seem to be saying that free-market capitalism is failing them and that there must be something better than accepting vast income inequality, as economist Richard Wolff explained to Dennis J Bernstein. By Dennis J Bernstein Sen. Bernie Sanders’s…

Rightists Sell Anti-Government Message

Since Ronald Reagan, the Republicans have rallied many Americans around the notion that “government is the problem.” And, despite disasters for the middle and working classes, right-wing intellectuals like Charles Krauthammer continue to sell the same message, as Lawrence Davidson describes. By Lawrence Davidson Charles Krauthammer is the most celebrated contemporary conservative thinker in the…

Hillary Clinton’s ‘Progressive’ Persona

Desperate to blunt Bernie Sanders’s surge of support especially among young Democrats, Hillary Clinton is pitching herself as a “progressive,” but many of her policies were anything but – from supporting military coups to favoring corporate interests, writes Jeff Cohen. By Jeff Cohen In her speech claiming victory after the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton proclaimed…

Shaking Up the Democratic Party

By demanding a “revolution” to shift power away from Wall Street, Sen. Sanders is attracting millions of young Americans who want fundamental change. He’s also upsetting the Democratic establishment which favors only incremental “reforms” acceptable to corporate interests, as Norman Solomon notes. By Norman Solomon Forty-eight years ago, a serious insurrection jeopardized the power structure of the…

Feeding the Military-Industrial Complex

Exclusive: Because he had commanded Allied forces in World War II, President Eisenhower understood the excesses of the war industry and warned Americans about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, a force that continues to siphon off tens of billions of tax dollars, as Jonathan Marshall explains. By Jonathan Marshall America’s military procurement machine may…