Why Ocasio-Cortez’ Platform Is So Great

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ platform is dramatically better than many may realize. It tackles the greatest evil in existence in a way that no other big-2 congressional candidate’s website does and which most do not even mention. And in doing so, it makes serious much of the rest of her socialist platform in a way that even presidential candidate Bernie Sanders did not — a way promoted by the peace movement, the Poor People’s Campaign, and Black Lives Matter.

War and war preparations eat up read more

Support Ocasio-Cortez for Congress Now

Within 30 minutes of my publishing this complaint that peace had vanished from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s website, the following appeared on her website:

A Peace Economy

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States has entangled itself in war and occupation throughout the Middle East and North Africa. As of 2018, we are currently involved in military action in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Hundreds of thousands of civilians in these countries have been killed either read more

Why It Matters That Peace Is Gone from Ocasio-Cortez Website

Newly popular Democratic politician hero and nominee for a seat in the U.S. Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used to have these words on her website:

“A Peace Economy

“Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States has entangled itself in war and occupation throughout the Middle East and North Africa. As of 2018, we are currently involved in military action in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. According to the Constitution, the right to declare war read more

Stop whining and start organizing: High Court Killing of Closed-Shop Public Employee Contracts a Needed Wake-Up Call for Business-Model Unions

By Dave Lindorff

            The wailing you hear from public sector unions and from trade unions in general in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Wednesday Janus decision banning the mandatory payment of fees to unions by workers who choose not to join them in the public sector is overwrought. In many states with strong public sector unions, this has been the case long before this ruling came down.

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             It’s read more

Tomgram: Stephanie Savell, How America’s Wars Fund Inequality at Home

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

On the campaign trail in 2016, Donald Trump wasn’t shy when it came to the issue of debt.  As he told Norah O’Donnell of CBS This Morning at the time, “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me. I’ve made a fortune by using debt and read more

A recipe for disaster: Why is the Six-Sigma Management Model Still Praised When It Led to GE’s Collapse?

By Dave Lindorff

            Over a generation ago, engineer Bill Smith, working at Motorola, developed a management system called Six-Sigma, designed to help companies avoid quality problems in their products and business processes. His system caught on and became a catch=word in business schools and in large corporations.

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            In 1995, Jack Welsh, CEO of GE, made it central to the read more

Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, “We Will Always Be Confronted by U.S. Power”

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Two decades ago, when I was working as an editor at a publishing house, Chalmers Johnson, then an eminent scholar of Asia and a former CIA consultant, sent in a proposal for a book he was already calling Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. I still remember the passage from his prologue that convinced me it was indeed one that simply had to be done:

“One read more

Altruism and Sadism in Public Policy

Remarks at Peace Resource Center of San Diego, June 23, 2018.

There are three things that are almost always underestimated: the U.S. military budget, altruism, and sadism.

First, the military budget.

The U.S. military budget, including all things military in various departments, is roughly 60% of federal discretionary spending, meaning the spending that Congress members decide on each year. It is also, by my very rough estimate, the topic of well under 1% of the discussions of government spending read more

Speaking Truth to Empire

https://soundcloud.com/speaking-truth-to-empire/180620-speaking-truth-to-empire-ray-mcgovern

Speaking Truth to Empire on KFCF 88.1 FM independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Ray McGovern about  “Russiagate” and “FBI?DOJ-gate”. Ray is a veteran CIA officer turned political activist. Ray was a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included read more