Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The first month of 2020 has been full of lessons—if we are willing to listen. With over 200 brush fires burning in Australia and an area as big as West Virginia already scorched, Australia’s problems are hardly confined to the subcontinent. In a telling irony the plumes […]
With College Students Drowning in Debt, the Best Solution is Gov’t-Backed Free Tuition for All
(Special to Informed Comment) – Some developments in this campaign have been predictable. Once Senators Sanders and Warren had expressed support for free post secondary education it was inevitable that other candidates would have to jump in. College costs have grown rapidly in recent years and the jobs that colleges promise—when available at all—have failed […]
Australia: The Fire This Time
The Climate Crisis isn’t Fooling Around
Is the Fed’s Agenda a Threat to Trump’s Reelection?
(Special to Informed Comment) – President Trump recently reported on another one of those perfect conversations. Jerome Powell and he purportedly talked about interest rates and the importance of keeping them low to maintain a booming economy. Powell of course reported on no such conversation. In any case, however, the imagined conversation highlighted such issues […]
Topsy-Turvy: Corporate Media Depict Bernie Sanders as “Extreme” and the Republican Party as Mainstream!
(Informed Comment) – Is a candidate a centrist? This question matters because many voters like to think of themselves as moderates or centrists. Other voters, not heavily engaged in the political process, are responsive to labels. Therefore the candidate who captures the label in the eyes of the corporate media has a leg up. But […]
The Politics of the Local Weather Broadcast: Call your Station and Demand News of Climate Crisis
(Informed Comment) – Many of us rely on daily reports, often presented by local TV weatherpersons, to get through our daily routines. How do I dress, do I need to take an umbrella to work, must I come home early to avoid the snowstorm? These professionals have a difficult job. Their predictions are generally correct […]
Trump’s Dismantling of our Government: Deregulating our Way to Disaster
(Informed Comment) – While Trump’s xenophobic and protectionist agenda, thankfully often blocked by the courts, has received the lion’s share of media attention, his henchmen have enacted a whole series of game changing initiatives in the area of federal regulation. Deregulating such domestic concerns as transportation, occupational health and safety, the environment is hardly new. […]
How Neoliberalism & Privatization are Driving our Crises, from Guatemala to Moscow
To the corporate media, history goes back only as far as yesterday. Thus the media portray the chaos and violence in Central America as though this is just a case of stuff happens. Or all of a sudden millions decided to come north in search of a better life. And these exculpatory views survived even […]
Dems must Step Up: Trumpism requires Impeachment and Confrontation
We are being confronted in the United States with a major political party that embraces tactics of earlier fascist parties