A new study by a University of California-Berkeley economist says that at current sluggish levels of job growth, entire regions of the United States, which were hit hardest by the Great Recession will not return to “normal” employment levels until the 2020s. This amounts, to “more than a ‘lost decade’ of depressed employment” for “half of the country,” wrote economist …
PETER DALE SCOTT – CUBA: OPERATION NORTHWOODS, THE FORGOTTEN INSANITY
Introduction by Russ Baker: As we watch President Obama being warmly welcomed in Cuba, we think back to the secret, shameful things done in the past by the US to undermine Castro, not counting the various assassination attempts. This report lays bare one of the more hair-raising schemes. On March 13, 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed to President …
Dave Johnson – Fact-Check This: Arrogance Of Elites Helps Drive The Trump Phenomenon
For some time now most of the people in this country have been under economic pressure. Pay is not going up very much or at all, while living costs keep rising. One recent statistic stands out – 63 percent of Americans would have difficulty raising $500 to cover an emergency, like a sudden need for car repair so they can …
Dean Baker – How to Fight Poverty Through Full Employment
One of the most effective ways to combat poverty among current and future generations is to maintain a full employment economy. The point should be straightforward: when the labor market is strong, or “tight,” it offers increased employment opportunities for those at the bottom. Disadvantaged workers are not only more likely to find employment in a tight labor market, they …
Eric Zuesse – U.S. Government Blames 9/11 On Iran, Fines Iran $10.5B; Iran Refuses To Pay
On March 14th, Iran announced that it will never pay the $10.5B that a U.S. court demanded it pay for the 9/11 attacks. The same Bill-Clinton-appointed judge who had ruled, on 29 September 2015, that Saudi Arabia has sovereign immunity for 9/11 and so can’t be sued for it, ruled recently, on March 9th that Iran doesn’t have sovereign immunity and fined Iran $10.5 billion …
Mike Males – The Stunning Facts on Crime and Imprisonment Everyone Is Ignoring
America’s criminal justice establishment – comprised of major foundations, interest groups, and academics – has missed a number of mammoth trends crucial to designing modern reform policies. One trend that escaped official notice was revealed in a recent Wonkblog post by Stanford University professor Keith Humphreys: over the past 15 years, imprisonments have plummeted among African Americans while rising among non-Hispanic whites. …
Dave Johnson – “Free Trade”: The Elites Are Selling It But The Public Is Longer Buying
“Free trade”: The elites are selling it but the public is longer buying it. Look at the support for Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump, especially in light of Sanders’ surprise 20-point comeback in this week’s Michigan primary. With primaries coming soon in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina, will Sanders’ trade appeal resonate again? Voters See Free Trade …
Rucha Chitnis – How Women-Led Movements Are Redefining Power, From California to Nepal
In the face of corporate domination, economic injustice, and climate change, movements led by women offer a revolutionary path. In her essay “There is No Hierarchy of Oppressions,” black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde wrote: “I have learned that oppression and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sizes and colors and sexualities; and that among those of …
German Lopez – The tragic collapse of America’s public mental health system
America’s criminal justice system has, in many ways, become a substitute for the US’s largely gutted mental health system. You may have heard something like that before, but never has it been clearer than in this map from MetricMaps: The map essentially tells two stories: the rise of mass incarceration and the collapse of America’s public mental health system. From the 1970s through …
John Whitehead – Just Shut Up and Vote: The Futility of Representative Government in an Age of Robber Barons
Despite the fact that we’ve been burned before, most Americans continue to allow themselves to be bamboozled into casting their votes for one candidate or another, believing that this time they mean what they say, this time they really care about the citizenry, this time will be different. Of course, it never turns out differently. We are as easily discarded the day after the elections as we were wantonly …










