How a Grassroots Campaign Defeated a Big Mining Company in El Salvador

At a time when all caring people are seeking a new way forward out of a year of unimaginable death, destruction and rampant inequality, along comes a book that gives us hope that a better world may be possible. The book, recently published, is based on a struggle in a...

The Political Realities of Science Work

In his recent piece “Geo-engineering is a Scam“, Josue De Luna Navarro points out a fact that has always been true of the engineering profession (and also most other highly refined professions) that its students, first seeking education, and then as graduates seeking...

Bombing Gaza as a Campaign Slogan

On March 25, 2019 while the major media fixated on Trump and his potential indictments in regards to Russia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing his own political opponents, an upcoming election and five potential indictments back home, stood with...

Nike’s Bad Air

Nike changes its brand more often than Madonna and more profitably. In the company’s latest transformation, Nike has risked–make that sought–the ire of Donald Trump and his drones by making Colin Kaepernick the face of its latest campaign under the inspiring slogan:...

With Unemployment So Low Why are Wages Stagnant?

If the unemployment rate is so low why have wages for most Americans failed to go up very much recently?  The simple answer is for the very same reasons why economic inequality and social mobility in America has largely ground to a halt in the last 40 years–the...

Injustice At Sea: the Irradiated Sailors of the USS Reagan

“Coverage of the USS Ronald Reagan has been astoundingly limited,” wrote Der Spiegel in a February 2015 story. Since then, nothing much has changed. The German magazine was referring to the saga of the American Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier whose crew...

Making Sense Beyond Opinion

Let’s consider two quotes: “To interpret is to determine the force which gives sense to a thing.” Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy “To opinionate is to refer to the register, shallow or deep, of your personal thoughts and feelings regarding any subject.”...

Get Real About Preventing War

During further escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea, pundits and other experts are trying to figure out what was behind the false information on the U.S. carrier group allegedly heading to the Korean Peninsula to send a strong signal to...

A Defensive Wall Against an Illiberal Regime

Here is some of what President-elect Donald Trump has already told us: The nonpartisan, independent Office of Congressional Ethics and the nonpartisan, independent Office of Government Ethics are unethical; the intelligence community is untrustworthy and not to be...

Globalization vs. Empire: Can Trump Contain the Growing Split?

Today, Donald Trump will be inaugurated the nation’s 45th president. Looking back, former Pres. Barack Obama may be remembered as America’s postmodern version of the Little Dutch Boy, the kid who plugged his finger in a dike to stop a flood.  With Hillary Clinton’s...

Are Democrats Still the Lesser Evil?

Since Election Day, it has felt as if American politics is unfolding in a dream world; the old moorings have gone missing and nothing any longer makes sense. But with Inauguration Day almost upon us, we have no choice: either we wallow in the surreality of it all, or...

The Scandal of Vast Inequality in Retirement Pay

Cato the Elder, a Roman senator and historian, once remarked:  “Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses.”  For centuries, retirees have been aware of this unfortunate fact, which led them to demand and, in many cases, secure old age pensions to...