Democratic Party

This commentary was jointly produced by In These Times and Foreign Policy In Focus. ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The infrastructure and budget reconciliation bills moving through Congress are a mixed bag when it comes to health care, income support programs, and the care economy. On climate and environmental issues, however, they are not […]

Congress

Why is Social Spending Controversial but Congress lavishes $7 trillion a Decade on Pentagon?

OtherWords

By Sister Karen M. Donahue | ( Otherwords.org) – Right now, the United States is locked in a contentious debate over the Build Back Better plan, which will make a significant difference in the lives of millions of individuals and families. Even though the provisions included in the plan — including universal child care, home […]

Batteries

How Sen. Manchin just Positioned Chinese Firms to dominate the Green Energy Markets of the 21st Century, Leaving the US in the Dust

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Coal baron Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has succeeded in blocking the part of President Biden’s Build Back Better bill that would have moved the U.S. electricity grid quickly to green energy. This development is very bad news for the earth, since human beings burning coal, petroleum and natural […]

CO2

Sordid Advantage: America can’t avert Climate Hellhole because Manchin, Sinema are Corporate Hired Mercenaries

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – American journalists like to personalize stories and create horse races empty of real content. That is why most Americans don’t know what is in the Democratic Build Back Better Bill backed by President Joe Biden– the substance has not been reported on. That bill was originally budgeted at $350 billion […]

Joe Biden

A Yemen Catastrophe that America helped Make (Pearson Inst. Video with Juan Cole)

Juan Cole

Pearson Institute Panel on Catastrophe in Yemen from October 13, with Juan Cole among the panelists. Pearson Institute: Yemen in Neglect My (much more expert-on-Yemen than I) colleagues in this panel: Afrah Nasser is Yemen Researcher, Human Rights Watch. Shadi Abu Sneida is a humanitarian working with UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Yemen. Stacy […]

Donald Trump

President Biden reverses Trump cuts to national monuments sacred to Native Americans, restores Bears Ears

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Diannie Chavez | – ( Cronkite News) – WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden restored Bears Ears National Monument to its previous 1.36 million-acres footprint Friday, reversing a Trump-era decision to cut as much as 85% of the southern Utah site valued for its environmental, archeological and tribal treasures. Bears Ears was one of three […]

China

Iran’s Hard Line gov’t Ebullient about higher Oil Prices, as China Defies US Sanctions on Tehran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran is a big beneficiary of the run-up in oil prices, with Brent crude hitting a multi-year high of $83 a barrel on Wednesday and the West Texas Intermediate price hitting about $79 a barrel. Analysts expect prices to remain high as we move into winter, when there is extra […]

Arms Sales

Why Do so many in Congress resist funding Childcare But swoon over F-35s?

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink) – President Biden and the Democratic Congress are facing a crisis as the popular domestic agenda they ran on in the 2020 election is held hostage by two corporate Democratic Senators, fossil-fuel consigliere Joe Manchin and payday-lender favorite Kyrsten Sinema. But the very week before the Dems’ $350 billion-per-year domestic package hit […]

Democratic Party

Arguing with Sen. Joe Manchin

John Buell

As I write this piece the so called moderate Democrats are locked in combat with the party’s progressives, but what issues besides numbers to be appropriated receive scant attention. Since Senator Manchin plays so pivotal a role in this conflict it is imperative that progressives understand from where he is coming and formulate careful responses. […]