Plutocracy

By Chuck Collins | – As part of the sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its European partners are cracking down on Russian oligarchs. They’re freezing assets and tracking the yachts, private jets, and luxury real estate holdings of these Russian billionaires. “I say to the Russian oligarchs and […]

Climate Crisis

Plutocrats Fiddling as the World Burns with Global Heating and Nuclear Tensions

Tom Engelhardt

He’s our very own emperor from hell, an updated version of Nero who, in legend, burned down Rome on a whim, though ours prefers drowning Washington. Why, just the other day, Donald Trump — and you knew perfectly well who I meant — bent the ears of 250 top Republican donors for 84 minutes. Among […]

Bernie Sanders

Democrats in Congress Want Windfall Tax on Big Oil, Consumer Rebates, and cheap Green Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has introduced, and several other congressional Democrats have co-sponsored, a bill to curb big petroleum companies engaged in profiteering. Whitehouse said at his site, “We’ve seen this script before, and we cannot allow the fossil fuel industry to once again collect a massive windfall by taking […]

Corruption

It’s Not Just Inflation — It’s Price Gouging

OtherWords

By Lindsay Owens | – ( Otherwords.org) – If you’ve been slammed lately by higher prices on everything from groceries to rental cars and gas prices, you’re probably wondering what on earth is behind these skyrocketing costs. Corporations are quick to blame this new reality on the pandemic, but another major culprit is hiding in […]

Inequality

Let’s Go after the Ill-Gotten, Tax-Evading Gains of All Oligarchs, not just Russian Ones

Sam Pizzigati

( Inequality.org ) – Can we please get serious about taxing the rich? Polls show that hefty majorities of people in the United States — and around the world — believe the rich ought to be paying more at tax time. Yet our contemporary don’t-tax-the-rich era has now entered its fifth consecutive decade. Egalitarian tax […]

Employment

Joe Manchin’s America: The Resurgence of the Culture-of-Poverty Debate

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – As if killing the Child Tax Credit, blocking voting rights, gutting key climate legislation, and refusing living wages wasn’t enough, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is now promoting legislation that further punishes the poor and marginalized. Along with Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, he’s introduced the PIPES Act, which undercuts […]

Corporations

Is the Gutting of Newspapers by Private Equity Firms the Nail in the Coffin of Democracy?

Sam Pizzigati

Profit maximizing in the newspaper industry is corroding the knowledge base that sustains government by the people. ( Inequality.org ) – Has the unthinkable, the Swedish political scientist Bo Rothstein mused earlier this month, now entered the realm of real possibility? Could democracy in the United States be disappearing? Millions of Americans are worrying about […]

Canada

How a Fringe in Canada caught the Far Right Trump Disease, fueled by US Money and Fox

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Using behemoth-sized vehicles as weapons, truckers shut down Canada’s capitol city Ottawa and blocked several bridges to the United States, including the Ambassador Bridge responsible for a quarter of the trade — 360 million dollars per day — between the United States and Canada. Car manufacturers including Toyota and […]