Subjects Archives: Inequality

America made a neoliberal deal with the devil when it began to whittle away New Deal protections for the vulnerable.

The Oklahoma state legislature has passed perhaps the most extreme anti-abortion law in the United States. This law, known as HB 4327, takes the right-wing offensive against reproductive rights to an outrageous new height by banning all abortions in the state starting from the moment of fertilization.

Amidst intense fighting under way, Russian forces entered Severodonetsk city in Luhansk, Donbass region, May 24, 2022

In Cuba, abortion and all healthcare is free, and enshrined in a constitution democratically voted on by the people. In the US, nine unelected, life-long judges control society based on a 1787 constitution written by slaveowners.

One million people in the United States have died of COVID-19. Coronavirus was written on their death certificates as the cause.

Although the cases of Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, and Tupac Shakur may seem like cautionary tales for musicians who may be inclined to politicize their lyrics they have served as an inspiration; especially Tupac.

If you follow the news it must seem like joining a union is a step outside the norms of U.S. law.

The Washington Post revealed Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s highly controversial “Disinformation Governance Board,” launched with much fanfare just three weeks earlier, was to close, and that its director, Nina Jankowicz—former fellow at the quasi-state Wilson Center think tank, and Ukrainian foreign ministry communications adviser–had resigned.

On 11 May 2022, an Israeli sniper fired at the head of the veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh as she reported on an Israeli military raid on a refugee settlement in Jenin (part of the Occupied Palestine Territories).

The leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that could destroy Roe v. Wade (Politico, 5/2/22) reportedly has the support of three justices appointed by Donald Trump. That’s important for a number of reasons.

The matter raises suspicions about a possible “instruction” that would be transmitted by American intelligence to Ukrainian neo-Nazis on “how to torture”.

The latest mass shooter in Buffalo, New York was clearly a racist, and identified with Ukrainian and other neo-Nazis. But white supremacy has a stronger hold on European and U.S. society than is commonly acknowledged. The avowed racist is not the only problem.

The controversy began when U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, made a statement on Colombian television channel NTN24 earlier in the month, saying that Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela were not welcome at the Summit, since these countries “do not adhere to the Democratic Charter of the Americas.”

While Afghanistan may finally be free of outside military occupation, Afghans are still suffering the deadly consequences of 40 years of U.S.-led subversion and war.

Massacre part of planned act of intimidation by U.S.-installed government and precipitated civil war in Ukraine.

For over two years now, the world has been facing a pandemic the like of which has not been seen for a century, and which has already taken 15 million lives according to the WHO, without being anywhere near an end.

“When you have touched a woman you have struck a rock,” says a South African proverb. It continues, you have dislodged a boulder, you will be crushed. The U.S. Supreme Court justices who penned the recently leaked draft majority opinion abolishing voluntary legal pregnancy termination, should take heed.

For all the public outcry, official probes and hearings, financial penalties, apologies and proposed regulations, Facebook remains the world’s foremost surveillance tool–weaponized in all manner of malevolent ways by any number of hostile elements.

Barack Obama recounts in his memoir ‘Dreams from my Father’ reading a book about Africa as a young man. He remembered how he was filled with ‘an anger all the more maddening for its lack of a clear target’ at the way that the dominant images of the book shifted from the independence struggles of leaders like Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah to ‘famine, disease, the coups and counter-coups led by illiterate young men wielding AK-47s like shepherd sticks’ (p.515).

Land is and means different things to different people. Indigenous, pastoralist, and rural farming communities are especially dependent on land, which is widely recognised by conservation organisations. Such communities are often uniquely vulnerable to the effects of ecosystem destruction while simultaneously having strong social norms and cultural values that support ecosystem preservation.