Plutocracy

How the NRA evolved from backing a 1934 Ban on Machine Guns to blocking nearly all firearm Restrictions Today

By Robert Spitzer, State University of New York College at Cortland | – The mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, just 10 days apart, are stirring the now-familiar national debate over guns seen after the tragic 2012 and 2018 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, […]

Far Right

When it comes to Guns, the US is a Third World Country run by Corporate Lobbyists for a Profit

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – 21 are dead in another mass shooting, including 19 schoolchildren. The white slavers of the Old Souoth used to call US slavery our “peculiar institution.” Nowadays we have another peculiar institution, the gun culture. And we are peculiar. When it comes to gun violence, the United States is less like […]

Carbon Footprint

Extinction Rebellion inspires Shell Consultant to Resign over Company’s Bad Faith on Climate Emergency, Call for More Resignations

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a letter of resignation to the Shell executive committee that she posted to her Linkedin page, Caroline Dennett, the director of the Clout consultancy, explained that she was leaving because Shell is “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “is not implementing steps to mitigate the […]

African-Americans

Under DeSantis, Republican “Child Identity” McCarthyism comes for Mickey Mouse

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Gov. Ron DeSantis’s attack on the Disney Corporation may seem odd, coming from a pro-business governor in a state where Disney is one of the largest employers. But DeSantis is pushing back at Disney on behalf of big capital, in a roundabout way. The entertainment corporations are problematic for the […]

Epidemics

The Poor at the Crossroads: The First and Worst Hit by Pandemics of Every Sort

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The 54th anniversary of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., just passed. Dr. King was shot down while organizing low-wage sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. At that time, he was building the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to organize America’s poor into a force to be reckoned with. In […]

Epidemics

Americans in poorer Counties have died of COVID at Double the rate of Wealthier Counties

OtherWords

By Karen Dolan | – ( Otherwords ) – As our country approaches 1 million deaths from COVID-19, it can feel impossible to wrap our heads around such a devastating figure. But it’s essential if we want to treat the pre-existing conditions that made it so deadly. In the beginning, many thought the pandemic would […]

Inequality

The Richest Americans pay 3.4% in Federal Taxes, a rate 5 Times Less than most People

ProPublica

By Paul Kiel, Ash Ngu, Jesse Eisinger and Jeff Ernsthausen | – ( ProPublica ) – Which people and professions rake in the most income year after year? Which are most adept at shielding that money from the taxman? And what does this tell you about America? The top earners, of course, are often fodder […]

Cold War

I may have failed as a Tax Resister, but Corporate America is Hugely Successful at it

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – Every April, as income-tax returns come due, I think about the day 30 years ago when I opened my rented mailbox and saw a business card resting inside. Its first line read, innocently enough, “United States Treasury.” It was the second line — “Internal Revenue Service” — that took my breath away. […]

Inequality

It Goes up but Never Comes Down: What Would It Take to Reduce US Military Spending?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – I have a question for you: What would it take in today’s world for America’s military spending to go down? Here’s one admittedly farfetched scenario: Vladimir Putin loses his grip on power and Russia retrenches militarily while reaching out to normalize relations with the West. At the same time, China prudently decides […]