Plutocracy

By William D. Hartung | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – When American firms dominate a global market worth more than $70 billion a year, you’d expect to hear about it. Not so with the global arms trade. It’s good for one or two stories a year in the mainstream media, usually when the annual statistics on […]

Plutocracy

GOP Convention Opens in City Pillaged by Its Policies

contributors

TeleSur | – – Cleveland, once called the Mistake on the Lake, hosts nominating convention of the political party that authored its downfall Just a few miles from downtown Cleveland’s preoccupied hum and gleaming skyscrapers, in the hollowed-out slums that resemble deserted ghost-towns, the notion of this city hosting the Republican National Convention that begins […]

Bill of Rights

Can Americans get back their Democracy from the Oligarchy?

contributors

By John Scales Avery | (Inter Press Service) | – – COPENHAGEN, (IPS) – As many observers around the world have pointed out, the United States is no longer a true democracy. It is an oligarchy. The US government ignores the safety, wishes and needs of the majority of its citizens, and instead makes decisions […]

Development

Is the Mideast disintegrating or just being Auctioned Off?

contributors

By Patrick Cockburn | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – We live in an age of disintegration. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Greater Middle East and Africa. Across the vast swath of territory between Pakistan and Nigeria, there are at least seven ongoing wars — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and […]

Employment

US Elites Abandoned their Workers: Trump is their Revenge; & You ain’t seen Nothin’ Yet

contributors

By John Feffer | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The voters vowed to take their revenge at the polls. They’d missed out on the country’s vaunted prosperity. They were disgusted with the liberal direction of the previous administration. They were anti-abortion and pro-religion. They were suspicious of immigrants, haughty intellectuals, and intrusive international institutions. And […]

Campaign Finance

Kochs’ Victory: House of Reps. Votes to Protect Anonymous ‘Dark Money’ Donors

contributors

TeleSur | – – The House of Representatives approved a bill that campaign finance refomers say will open the door to illegal influence on political campaigns. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to protect the identities of wealthy individuals and others who make anonymous, or “dark money,” donations to politically active nonprofit […]

Internet

In consumer victory over Telcoms, Fed Appeals court Upholds Net Neutrality

contributors

By Kit Walsh | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – In a crucial win for Internet users, today a federal appeals court upheld [PDF] clear net neutrality rules that will let us all use and enjoy the Internet without unfair interference from Internet service providers. The rules will keep providers from blocking or slowing traffic, […]

Far Right

Koch Bros. Shill Glenn Beck suspended for agreeing with Brad Thor that Trump might have to be Taken Out

contributors

Joya Mia Italiano and Elliot Hill | (TheLipTV Video Report) | – – “Glenn Beck has been suspended from satellite radio company SiriusXM after one of his guests made a threat against Donald Trump. Fiction author Brad Thor appeared on The Glenn Beck Program last Wednesday and said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is a […]

censorship

Does billionaire-funded lawsuit against Gawker create playbook for punishing press?

contributors

By Clay Calvert | (The Conversation) | – – Word last week that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel bankrolled wrestler Hulk Hogan’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker added a wrinkle to a case already featuring colorful characters and a US$140 million jury verdict. At a sensational and personal level, the story highlights the animus between PayPal […]