A 70-year-old Baby Boomer has some advice for his elders: Wake Up Older Voters Backing Biden! He’s Going After Your (and Your Grandkids’) Social Security

By Dave Lindorff

 Over the last few months I have written a couple of pieces, one aimed at Baby Boomers (my demographic cohort, as I’m 70), and one aimed at the Millennials (a group which includes both my kids, aged 26 and 35).  Now I want to talk to those of you who are older than even myself — let’s call you the pre-Boomers  — folks born before 1945 and all in your mid-70s to 80s and 90s (and maybe a few centenarians!).

I want to address you because polls keep reporting that a fair read more

Democrats need backbone on militarism to win in 2020: Iran is NOT Responsible for US Dead in Iraq

By John Grant

Who exactly is responsible for US casualties in Iraq during the Iraq War? The question has been raised thanks to President Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian General Qessim Suleimani.

On January 13, the New York Times published a front-page story about a lawsuit filed against Iran in federal court by US veterans and veteran families; it charges Iran with wounding or killing these men. The crux of the lawsuit is that the explosive devices that killed and maimed these read more

What happens when people no longer want our money?: Papering the World with Benjamins

By Allen Baker

Benjamin Franklin was a prolific inventor and a brilliant thinker. But even he would be amazed at the vast profits that arise simply from printing his portrait on the U.S. hundred-dollar bill.

Here’s how it works: Each year, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing rolls out roughly a billion crisp new hundreds bearing Franklin’s image. (Think of a goose laying golden eggs.) It then sells those bills to banks. The U.S. pockets, well, $100 billion read more

Warren, with CNN help, plays wronged-woman card against Sanders: Could We Be Witnessing the Demise of Identity Politics?

By Laurie Dobson

In the current race for the Democratic presidential nomination, there have been two prevailing narratives.  One is the battle between the so-called “moderates” (actually neoliberals) vs. “progressives,” in which candidates like Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and, at least until recently, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, are pitted against “lefty” Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The other is a contest between the two “progressives”: the read more

The Earth just moved, but it wasn’t the Taal volcano: The Equal Rights Amendment Just Got the Support of the Needed 38th State!

By Dave Lindorff

Here’s a big deal that’s bound to become a lot bigger this year.

Exactly 100 years after women finally won the vote with ratification of a 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, the state legislature of Virginia on January 15 finally became the needed 38th state of the Union to ratify the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, a measure designed to guarantee full equal rights to women in all matters .Such a change in the Constitution requires ratification  by the legislatures read more

Rogue president, rogue nation: Trump Tells Iraq Order US Troops Out and I’ll Freeze Your Central Bank’s Account at the Fed

By Dave Lindorff

President Trump’s actions in the Middle East are becoming increasingly unhinged.

A week ago, he nearly triggered a catastrophic war between Iran and the US when, acting seemingly on a whim or in response to the advice of two of his nuttier advisors, fundamentalist Christian “Rapture” believers Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, he ordered the assassination by drone of the commander of Iran’s military, Qassem Suleimani.

Fortunately for American troops, sailors and pilots, and for read more

The reality we must face: Our Country, the United States, is a Rogue Nation and Our Leaders are Criminals

By Dave Lindorff

For as long as I’ve been alive, my country has been a rogue state.

Actually, the US became a rogue state four years before my birth in 1949 when, in 1945, Washington decided to bomb two militarily insignificant cities in Japan with its new super weapon, the atomic bomb, instantly incinerating several hundred thousand Japanese civilians, including many, many children, and condemning at least that many more to slow agonizing deaths from resulting cancers and birth defects.

From read more

US jingoism promotes mindless support for war with Iran: It’s Our Own Leader, Donald Trump, Who Is ‘Blood-Thirsty’ and ‘Blood-Soaked’

This is not an article intended to praise Qassem Suleimani, the Commander of Iran’s military who was whacked by President Trump with several Hellfire Missiles fired from a US drone at his vehicle outside the Baghdad Airport.

What I do decry, however, is the almost universal characterization of Suleimani as “the baddest of the bad,” or as the NY Times labeled him in Sunday editorial condemning read more

Opening Pandora’s Box in Iraq: Trump Hit on Iranian Commander Puts a Target on His Own and Top US Generals’ Backs

By Dave Lindorff

As far back as at least the American Revolution, there was an unwritten rule among combatants that you don’t kill the commander in the field of battle. That’s why generals could be seen directing their troops while sitting astride a horse behind the front lines —easy targets for anyone equipped with a rifled barrel on their long gun to pick off.  The reason they felt relatively safe doing so was that it was that both sides understood that if commanding officers were read more

No ‘Happy New Year’ this holiday: Hard Times are Coming in 2020 and in the Decade Ahead

By Dave Lindorff

Gentle reader, I am afraid cannot bring myself to offer you the expected “Happy New Year” greeting at the start of this decade.

The traditional phrase for today sticks in my craw. It just seems too ridiculous and inappropriate to our reality to be uttered with any sincerity.

2020 and the decade that it is ushering in is not going to be a “happy” time for the vast majority of us humans on this planet or even to those of us living in this most fortunate of nations, geographically read more