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Norman Solomon is cofounder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and is currently a coordinator of the relaunched Bernie Delegates Network. Solomon is the author of a dozen books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.
(18 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 3, 2013 The Growing Campaign to Revoke Obama's Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize that President Obama received 40 months ago has emerged as the most appalling Orwellian award of this century. No, war is not peace.
George Carlin used to riff about oxymorons like "jumbo shrimp," "genuine imitation," and "military intelligence." But humor is of the gallows sort when we consider the absurdity and tragedy of the world's most important peace prize honoring the world's top war maker.
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, August 22, 2016 Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold
Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with corporate America.
Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis of the Sanders campaign -- Wall Street. The trend continued last week with the announcement that Clinton has tapped former senator and Interior secretary Ken Salazar to chair her transition team.
(8 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 3, 2018 Is MSNBC Now the Most Dangerous Warmonger Network?
MSNBC's incessant "Russiagate" coverage has put the network at the media forefront of overheated hyperbole about the Kremlin. And continually piling up the dry tinder of hostility toward Russia boosts the odds of a cataclysmic blowup between the world's two nuclear superpowers.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, July 22, 2013 Obama's Escalating War on Freedom of the Press
The part of the First Amendment that prohibits "abridging the freedom " of the press" is now up against the wall, as the Obama administration continues to assault the kind of journalism that can expose government secrets.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, December 7, 2015 Obama's Speech, Translated into Candor
In the name of defeating terrorist forces, our air war has the effect of recruiting for them. Meanwhile, in Syria, our obsession with regime change has propelled us into closely aligning with extremist jihadi fighters. They sure appreciate the large quantities of our weapons that end up in their arsenals.
(43 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 11, 2017 The Long Road to Impeaching Trump Just Got Shorter
The Constitution that Trump continues to flagrantly violate is supposed to be "the supreme law of the land." To give Trump a pass would be to wink at his merger of vast personal wealth and corporate holdings with vast governmental power. No members of the House have taken the plunge to introduce an actual resolution for impeachment. They will have to be pushed.
(17 comments) SHARE Monday, December 23, 2013 Is MoveOn Less Progressive Than the New York Times Editorial Board?
On crucial matters of foreign policy, militarism and surveillance, the contrast between Times editorials and MoveOn is stunning. Millions of people on MoveOn's list are continually deluged with emails pretending that Republicans are the only major problem in Washington -- while nearly always ignoring Obama administration policies that are antithetical to basic progressive values.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 28, 2013 What The Assault On Whistleblowers Has to Do With War on Syria
Every president who wants to launch another war can't abide whistleblowers. They might interfere with the careful omissions, distortions and outright lies of war propaganda, which requires that truth be held in a kind of preventative detention.
(34 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 7, 2017 The House Can Start Impeachment Against Trump Now
From the outset of his presidency, Trump has been violating the U.S. Constitution in a way that we have not seen before and should not tolerate. It's time for members of Congress to get the impeachment process underway. For democracy in the United States, the biggest danger is unchecked presidential ability to violate the Constitution.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 20, 2020 What the Coronavirus Emergency Has to Do with Biden vs. Sanders
Sanders was correct when he said last week that "poll after poll, including exit polls, show that a strong majority of the American people support our progressive agenda." Days ago, the Bernie 2020 campaign sent out a mass email declaring that "our campaign has won the battle of ideas."
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, June 19, 2017 Behind the Media Surge Against Bernie Sanders
It's routine for right-wing outlets like Fox to smear progressive activists under the guise of "news" coverage. But why the New York Times? And why the special venom for Bernie Sanders?
(6 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 26, 2013 Obama's Justice Department: Trumpeting a New Victory in War on Freedom of the Press
The Obama administration's pernicious goal is to normalize circumstances where journalists can't credibly promise confidentiality, and potential leakers don't believe they can have it. The broader purpose is to destroy independent journalism -- which is to say, actual journalism -- which is to say, freedom of the press.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 2, 2019 The Joe Biden That MSNBC Won't Show You
In a party that officially condemns dog-whistle appeals to racism, Joe Biden is running on Orwellian eggshells. Whether he can win the Democratic presidential nomination may largely depend on the extent of "doublethink" that George Orwell described in 1984 as the willingness "to forget any fact that has become inconvenient."
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 29, 2014 An Assault from Obama's Escalating War on Journalism
A recent brief from the Obama administration to the nation's top court "is unflinchingly hostile to the idea of the Supreme Court creating or finding protections for journalists," Politico reported.
(15 comments) SHARE Friday, February 7, 2020 DNC in Disarray While the Sanders Campaign Gains Momentum
The glaring subtext of all this is the now-frantic effort to find some candidate who can prevent Sanders from becoming the party's nominee at the national convention in July.
(9 comments) SHARE Monday, April 1, 2013 An Outpouring of Love and Support for Bradley Manning to Receive the Nobel Peace Prize
As a U.S. Army private -- seeing massive evidence of official deception, human rights abuses and flagrant killing of civilians -- Bradley Manning did not just follow orders. Instead, he became a whistleblower, supplying vast troves of documents to WikiLeaks, exposing duplicity that had enormous impacts from Iraq and Afghanistan to Egypt and Tunisia.
(10 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 24, 2018 Polls Show Being Anti-Trump Isn't Enough to Beat GOP
Instead of addressing demands for social progress, such as single-payer insurance, Democratic leaders find it much easier and more comfortable to denounce Trump. But it's not working, as Norman Solomon explains.
(15 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 10, 2017 DNC Fraud Suit Exposes Anti-Democratic Views in Democratic Party
Along with most Democrats in Congress, the DNC remains eager to heap blame on Russia for the defeat of Hillary Clinton. That's been a nifty way to deflect attention from what cried out for scrutiny after November's election -- the reality that Clinton's close ties with Wall Street and big banks made it unconvincing to pitch her as an ally of working people.
(14 comments) SHARE Monday, December 2, 2019 Corporate Media Wants Anybody but Warren or Sanders
Overall, in subtle and sledgehammer ways, the mass media of the United States -- owned and sponsored by corporate giants -- are in the midst of a siege against the two progressive Democratic candidates who have a real chance to be elected president in 2020.
(18 comments) SHARE Friday, June 29, 2018 Democratic Elite Scrambles to Respond to Ocasio-Cortez
Stunned by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's victory, the Democratic Party establishment is trying to contain the rebellion challenging its class interests and may try to stem the tide with a compromise on super-delegates, as Norman Solomon reports.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, December 13, 2019 Will the Democratic Presidential Nomination Be Bought?
The obvious differences between Buttigieg, Biden and Bloomberg are apt to distract from their underlying political similarities. Fundamentally, they're all aligned with the nation's economic power structure two as corporate servants, one as a corporate master.
(32 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Why the DNC Is Fighting WikiLeaks and Not Wall Street
Rather than take stock of why they lost in 2016 and address demands of ordinary Americans, the Democratic Party continues to scapegoat Russia and WikiLeaks in a misguided lawsuit, says Norman Solomon in this commentary.
(7 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 11, 2020 Why the Buttigieg Campaign Tried to Have Me Arrested for Handing Out These Medicare for All Fliers
"Buttigieg is claiming that Medicare for All would dump people off of health coverage and deprive them of 'choice,'" our flier pointed out. "Those are insurance-industry talking points. He is deliberately confusing the current 'choice' of predatory for-profit insurance plans with the genuine full choice of healthcare providers that enhanced Medicare for everyone would offer."
(11 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 6, 2020 Why the Left Must Reject and Elect Biden at the Same Time
The choice ahead, Trump or Biden, is painfully real. The crucial part of this decision is to get rid of the major barrier to survival, which happens to be in the White House. Get rid of Trump, then we have opportunities.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 15, 2018 The "Pelosi Problem" Runs Deep
Nancy Pelosi will probably be the next House speaker, a prospect that fills most alert progressives with disquiet, if not dread. But instead of fixating on her as a villain, progressives should recognize the long-standing House Democratic leader as a symptom of a calcified party hierarchy that has worn out its grassroots welcome and is beginning to lose its grip.
(80 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 24, 2020 We've Got Our Own Reasons to Elect Biden -- and He Isn't One of Them
Cornel West: "A vote for Joe Biden is . . . a way of preserving the condition for the possibility of any kind of democratic practice in the United States."
The "Not Him Us" site goes on to ask a central question: "We wanted a political revolution. Now what?" The answers begin by reframing the current realities to include not just clear and present dangers but also great possibilities:
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 17, 2020 The Escalating Class War Against Bernie Sanders
More than ever, Bernie Sanders is public enemy number one for power elites that thrive on economic injustice. The Bernie 2020 campaign is a direct threat to the undemocratic leverage that extremely wealthy individuals and huge corporations constantly exert on the political process.
(8 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 14, 2013 Which Members of Congress Are Standing Up for Economic Decency -- and Which "Progressives" Aren't
In the real politics of the emerging struggle over Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, there's a very big difference between expressing opposition to benefit cuts and promising not to vote for them. It's only when members of Congress make a firm public commitment that Obama White House strategists may feel a need to recalibrate their deal-making calculus with Republicans.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 7, 2020 Biden and Buttigieg Are Showing How Corporatism and 'the Madness of Militarism' Go Together
There's nothing like an illegal and utterly reckless U.S. act of war to illuminate the political character of presidential candidates. In the days since the assassination of Iran's top military official, two of the highest-polling Democratic contenders have displayed the kind of moral cowardice that got the United States into -- and kept it in -- horrific wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq.
(25 comments) SHARE Monday, January 30, 2017 Rachel Maddow Plays Glenn Beck
By pushing the new anti-Russian McCarthyism as an attack strategy against President Trump, Democrats -- and progressives like Rachel Maddow -- are encouraging a costly and dangerous New Cold War, writes Norman Solomon.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 24, 2019 Corporate Media and "Moderate" Democrats Are Defending the Oligarchy Against Bernie Sanders
Sanders gets so much flak from corporate media because his campaign is upsetting the dominant apple cart. He relentlessly exposes a basic contradiction: A society ruled by an oligarchy defined as "a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes" can't really be a democracy.
SHARE Wednesday, December 20, 2017 The Real Story Behind Katharine Graham and "The Post"
Katharine Graham's decision to publish the Pentagon Papers was indeed laudable, helping to expose lies that had greased the wheels of the war machinery with such horrific consequences in Vietnam. But the Washington Post was instrumental in avidly promoting the lies that made the Vietnam War possible in the first place.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 5, 2013 Bradley Manning Is Guilty of "Aiding the Enemy" -- If the Enemy Is Democracy
Of all the charges against Bradley Manning, the most pernicious -- and revealing -- is "aiding the enemy."
A blogger at The New Yorker, Amy Davidson, raised a pair of big questions that now loom over the courtroom at Fort Meade and over the entire country:
* "Would it aid the enemy, for example, to expose war crimes committed by American forces or lies told by the American government?"
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 29, 2019 With Sanders and Warren Surging, Is Wall Street's 2020 Nightmare Coming True?
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are drawing large crowds and rising in polls. In pivotal early states like Iowa and especially New Hampshire, reputable poll averages indicate that Biden is scarcely ahead. A giant bank CEO told Politico that "it can't be Warren and it can't be Sanders." That's the decision from Wall Street. The decision from Main Street is yet to be heard.
(24 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 21, 2016 Progressives: Stop Blaming the Russians
A crucial choice is right in front of the progressive groups and commentators who've been echoing the anti-Russia barrage from U.S. mass media. Staying on course will help to undermine civil liberties at home and will help to escalate conflicts with Russia that could end with nuclear war. Doesn't sound "progressive" to me.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 26, 2019 To Joe Biden, Trump's Potential Successor Mike Pence "Is a Decent Guy"
Progressives often feel that they're on the outside of electoral politics, looking in. Corporate news media routinely reinforce that impression, treating progressive activism as invisible or inconsequential. But Politico's latest assessment that Biden's steep fall in the polls is partly due to "continuous fire from progressives" tells us something important.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 14, 2019 Bernie Sanders Sees Right Through The Washington Post
What Bernie Sanders is pointing out is not and he never said it was a "conspiracy." The problems are much deeper and more pernicious, having to do with the financial structures of media institutions that enable profit-driven magnates and enormous corporations to dominate the flow of news and commentary.
SHARE Tuesday, November 19, 2019 Joe Biden's AstroTurf Campaign
Biden is a back-to-the-future product who often seems clueless about the present. The Biden campaign is likely to be the best bet for deep-pocketed political investors seeking to prevent the nomination of Sanders or Warren.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, March 2, 2020 The Sanders Coalition Is Set to Shock the World on Super Tuesday
For many years, corporate media outlets said it couldn't be done. Now, they say it must not be. To the nation's punditocracy tacitly or overtly aligned with the nation's oligarchy nominating Bernie Sanders as the Democratic presidential candidate would be catastrophic.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 25, 2020 As a Corporate Tool, Buttigieg Is Now a Hammer to Bash Sanders
Buttigieg has gone from pseudo-progressive to anti-progressive in the last year, and much of his current mission involves denouncing Bernie Sanders with attack lines that are corporate-media favorites.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 22, 2019 Pete Buttigieg Is a Sharp Corporate Tool
As Buttigieg kept collecting big checks from corporate executives and wealthy donors, he went from being "all for" a single-payer Medicare for All system in January to trashing it in the debate last week as a plan that would kick "150 million Americans off of their insurance in four short years." The demagoguery won praise from corporate media outlets.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 20, 2019 Joe Biden Staggers
"There's not a racist bone in my body," Biden exclaimed Wednesday night, moments after demanding: "Apologize for what?" His deep paternalism surfaced during the angry outburst as he declared: "I've been involved in civil rights my whole career, period, period, period."
Biden has been "involved" in civil rights his "whole career." But at some crucial junctures, he was on the wrong side. He teamed up with segregationists...
(14 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 25, 2020 Progressives Must Fight With -- and In -- the Democratic Party
In the electoral arena, the goal is not only about winning elections. It's also about replacing the top-down weight of entrenched politicians with the bottom-up power of grassroots activism.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 4, 2019 Why Joe Biden Was Afraid to Face California's Democratic Party
Joe Biden's glaring absence from the California Democratic Party convention has thrown a national spotlight on his eagerness to detour around the party's progressive base. While dodging an overt clash for now, Biden is on a collision course with grassroots Democrats across the country who are learning more about his actual record and don't like it.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, November 25, 2019 When Progressives in Congress Let Us Down, We Should Push Back
Even the best progressives in the House spend a lot more time with congressional colleagues and leaders than they do with constituents. The power of the Democratic leadership is quite tangible and often stern, whereas the power of constituents is routinely diffuse and unrealized.
(11 comments) SHARE Monday, May 22, 2017 How the Russia Spin Got So Much Torque
The "Moscow Project" is expressly inclined to go over the top, aiming to help normalize ultra-partisan conjectures as supposedly factual. And so, the homepage of the "Moscow Project" prominently declares: "Given Trump's obedience to Vladimir Putin and the deep ties between his advisers and the Kremlin, Russia's actions are a significant and ongoing cause for concern."
SHARE Monday, January 13, 2014 Why the Washington Post’s New Ties to the CIA Are So Ominous
The Washington Post's refusal to provide readers with minimal disclosure in coverage of the CIA is important on its own. But it's also a marker for an ominous pattern -- combining denial with accommodation to raw financial and governmental power -- a synergy of media leverage, corporate digital muscle and secretive agencies implementing policies of mass surveillance, covert action and ongoing warfare.
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, September 9, 2019 Why a DNC Vice Chair Bawled Me Out -- and Why Joe Biden Must Be Stopped
Biden's mediocre speech at the New Hampshire convention on September 7 is already an historic record of a dismal candidate for president whose nomination promises to be a disaster. To pretend otherwise is hardly a service to the crucial task of defeating Donald Trump.
SHARE Saturday, June 20, 2020 California "Berning" for Ro Khanna to Chair the State's Delegation to Democratic National Convention
The Democratic Party is at a crossroads in California, where Bernie Sanders defeated Joe Biden in the presidential primary three months ago. In recent days, over 110 Sanders delegates -- just elected in "virtual caucuses" across the state -- have signed a statement calling for Congressman Ro Khanna to be the chair of California's delegation to the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, October 14, 2019 The More Joe Biden Stumbles, the More Corporate Democrats Freak Out
While progressives who understand Biden's actual record are determined to prevent him from becoming the presidential nominee, "the folks at the top" are doubling down on their best chance to win the nomination for someone who says they "aren't bad guys." That's Joe Biden.
(49 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 27, 2022 Biden's Unhinged Call for Regime Change in Russia
Ever since Joe Biden ended his speech in Poland on Saturday night by making one of the most dangerous statements ever uttered by a U.S. president in the nuclear age, efforts to clean up after him have been profuse. Administration officials scurried to assert that Biden didn't mean what he said. Yet no amount of trying to "walk back" his unhinged comment at the end of his speech...
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, December 29, 2017 This Is What Pseudo-Democracy Looks Like
Polls throughout 2017 showed that the most popular politician in the country is Bernie Sanders, who has been denouncing the oligarchy for many years. No wonder The Washington Post -- owned by the richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos -- has gone to centrist extremes to disparage Sanders and what he stands for. The mortal threat to the oligarchy is a sustained groundswell that can propagate genuine democracy.
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, September 30, 2013 The NSA Deserves a Permanent Shutdown
At the top of the federal government, even a brief shutdown of "core NSA operations" is unthinkable. But at the grassroots, a permanent shutdown of the NSA should be more than thinkable; we should strive to make it achievable.
(9 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 5, 2021 Stop Calling the Military Budget a 'Defense' Budget
It's bad enough that mainstream news outlets routinely call the Pentagon budget a "defense" budget. But the fact that progressives in Congress and even many antiwar activists also do the same is an indication of how deeply the mindsets of the nation's warfare state are embedded in the political culture of the United States.
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Democrats must push back
The bipartisan deal-makers in Washington are slashing the safety net that's essential for vast numbers of Americans. One of the most dangerous aspects of the recent budget deal is that it explicitly sets the stage for future actions to undermine Medicare. This scenario strikes at the heart of precious values.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 4, 2020 The Creation Myth of the Buttigieg Campaign
Buttigieg's rise was propelled by the rocket fuel of funding from -- and bonding with -- wealthy corporate operators, who bundled big checks from other donors and provided an establishment seal of approval that resonated with mainstream media.
(18 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 19, 2019 What the Bernie Sanders 2020 Campaign Means for Progressives
In the obvious contrasts with Harris and in the less obvious yet significant contrasts with Warren on matters of economic justice as well as on foreign policy, Bernie Sanders represents a different approach to the root causes of -- and possible solutions to -- extreme economic inequality, systemic injustice and a dire shortage of democracy.
Harris's tweak and Warren's regulate options are not enough to end corporate rule
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, November 18, 2013 The Obamacare Disaster and the Poison of Party Loyalty
Obamacare is a mess largely because it builds a revamped healthcare system around the retrenched and extended power of insurance companies--setting back prospects for real healthcare reform for a decade or more.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 25, 2017 When Barbara Lee Doesn't Speak for Me
Certainly, Lee deserves credit for ongoing efforts to repeal the 2001 war authorization. Yet this month she veered way off the peace track by proclaiming that she was "outraged" because Trump and Putin had a meeting. Now we must let her know when she no longer speaks for us.
SHARE Tuesday, October 8, 2019 Bernie Sanders Is America's Beating Heart
Bernie has a huge and eternally healthy heart, filled with the lifeblood of empathy and dedication. In essence, that's what the Bernie 2020 campaign is all about. As he has been the first to say, it's not about him, it's about us. How much compassion and commitment can we find in our hearts?
SHARE Wednesday, May 2, 2018 The Ghosts of "New Democrats" Are Haunting Us
Both Clinton and Obama were youthful and articulate, breaths of fresh air after repugnant Republican predecessors in the White House. Yet our two most recent Democratic presidents were down with corporate power -- not as far down as the GOP, but nevertheless in the thrall of Wall Street and the big banks.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 8, 2013 The Progressive Caucus: Enabling Obama's Rightward Moves?
What we have witnessed so far is surrender in stages -- a chronic confluence of conformity and undue party loyalty, with brave talk from caucus members habitually followed by contrary votes on the floor of the House of Representatives
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, June 24, 2013 The Pursuit of Edward Snowden: Washington in a Rage, Striving to Run the World
The central issue is our dire shortage of democracy. How can we have real consent of the governed when the government is entrenched with extreme secrecy, surveillance and contempt for privacy?
The state of surveillance and perpetual war are one and the same. The U.S. government's rationale for pervasive snooping is the "war on terror," the warfare state under whatever name.
SHARE Wednesday, August 14, 2019 Why Bernie Sanders Is Correct About the Washington Post -- and Corporate Media Overall
Bernie Sanders set off the latest round of outraged denial from elite media this week when he talked to a crowd in New Hampshire about the tax avoidance of Amazon (which did not pay any federal income tax last year). Sanders went on to say: "I wonder why the Washington Post -- which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon -- doesn't write particularly good articles about me. I don't know why. ... maybe there's a connection
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 8, 2018 To Stop War, Do What Katharine Gun Did
Legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg's advice to stop current and future wars is simple: do what Katharine Gun did, writes Norman Solomon.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 3, 2017 Danger in Democrats Demonizing Putin
With the Clintons' corporate money machine floundering after a devastating election defeat, Democrats are desperate to find someone to blame and have dangerously settled on Vladimir Putin, writes Norman Solomon.
(9 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 30, 2020 Joe Biden Needs an Intervention: An Open Letter to DNC Chair Tom Perez
Joe Biden is ignoring the wisdom that Jesse Jackson offered at the Democratic National Convention in 1988: "It takes two wings to fly." Right now, Biden is idling in the cockpit of a political aircraft with one wing.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 12, 2015 CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling Sentenced to Prison: The Latest Blow in the Government's War on Journalism
Jeffrey Sterling was convicted by a jury for being the main source of James Risen's book about a CIA op designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear program. There were nearly 100 people who could have been the source, but Sterling was convicted on circumstantial evidence because the DOJ likes to go after whistleblowers."
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 25, 2013 Obama's Willing Executioners of the Fourth Amendment
All three branches of the U.S. government are now largely under the control of forces with stunning contempt for basic legal processes required by the Bill of Rights. Mere words and mild reforms from members of Congress may mollify the gullible, but only a direct challenge to the Obama administration's policies can rise to the level of the current historic imperative to restore civil liberties in the United States.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 17, 2021 If Dennis Kucinich Becomes the Mayor of Cleveland, It'll Be a Shock to the System. Again
Cleveland has been spiraling downward. It's one of the poorest cities in the country, beset by worsening violent crime, poverty and decaying infrastructure. Now, 42 years after the end of his first term as mayor, Dennis Kucinich is ready for his second.
Kucinich won a race for mayor of Cleveland at age 31 and promptly infuriated the power structure
(10 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 17, 2013 The Orwellian Warfare State of Carnage and Doublethink
The U.S. is killing children with cluster bombs & drones around the world, but it doesn't become an outrage until someone kills American children.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 7, 2019 The Crass Warfare of Billionaires Against Sanders and Warren
The billionaire class is worried. For the first time in memory, there's a real chance that the next president could threaten the very existence of billionaires -- or at least significantly reduce their unconscionable rate of wealth accumulation -- in a country and on a planet with so much human misery due to extreme economic disparities.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 27, 2018 How Corporate Democrats Aim to Stifle Criticism
Well-informed public discussion is a major hazard for Democratic Party elites now eager to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the 2020 presidential nomination. A clear focus on key issues can bring to light the big political differences between Sanders and the party's corporate-friendly candidates. One way to muddy the waters is to condemn people for pointing out facts that make those candidates look bad.
(7 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 22, 2021 Why Israel Blows Up Media Offices and Targets Journalists
Israel's military began threatening and targeting journalists several decades ago, in tandem with its longstanding cruel treatment of Palestinians. Rather than reduce the cruelty, the Israeli government keeps trying to reduce accurate news coverage.
(9 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 4, 2018 What It Means That Hillary Clinton Might Run for President in 2020
Whether or not Hillary Clinton runs for president again, Clintonism is a political blight with huge staying power. It can be overcome only if and when people at the grassroots effectively insist on moving the Democratic Party in a genuinely progressive direction.
SHARE Tuesday, January 28, 2020 Bernie Sanders and His Movement Are on the Verge of History
Young voters have the potential to make Bernie Sanders the winner of the New Hampshire primary and young voters across the country have the potential to make him president of the United States.
SHARE Thursday, September 5, 2019 Why 'Primary' Should Be a Verb for Progressives
ctivists may flatter themselves into believing that they have the most influence by seeking warm personal relationships with a Democratic lawmaker. But a credible primary campaign is likely to change an elected official's behavior far more quickly and extensively.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, December 6, 2019 Kerry's Biden Endorsement Fits: Both Methodically Lied to Support Iraq War
Kerry and Biden don't want to acknowledge a historic tie that binds them: Both men were important supporters of the Iraq war, voting for the invasion on the Senate floor and continuing to back the war after it began. Over the years, political winds have shifted -- and Biden, like Kerry, has methodically lied about his support for that horrendous war.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 24, 2021 Why Corporate Democrats Are Desperately Trying to Keep Nina Turner Out of Congress
Time is short. Polling shows Turner with a big lead, early voting begins in two weeks, and Election Day is August 3. What scares the political establishment is what energizes her supporters: She won't back down when social justice is at stake.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 5, 2019 Bernie's Heart. And Ours.
Bernie has a huge and eternally healthy heart, filled with the lifeblood of empathy and dedication. In essence, that's what the Bernie 2020 campaign is all about. As he has been the first to say, it's not about him, it's about us. How much compassion and commitment can we find in our hearts?
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, June 24, 2019 BAD BLUES: Some of the House Democrats Who Deserve to Be 'Primaried'
It isn't easy to defeat a Democratic incumbent in a primary. Typically, the worse the Congress member, the more (corporate) funding they get. While most insurgent primary campaigns will not win, they're often very worthwhile -- helping progressive constituencies to get better organized and to win elections later. And a grassroots primary campaign can put a scare into the Democratic incumbent to pay more attention to voters
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 4, 2018 Social Media Madness: the Russia Canard
Fixating on Russia as culpable for the election of Trump has been widely irresistible. Perhaps that fixation is less upsetting than deeper realization of just how rotten the U.S. corporate system of injustice has become -- and how the forces that brought us the horrors of the Trump presidency are distinctly homegrown.
SHARE Friday, January 26, 2018 DNC Chair Tom Perez, the Democratic Party's Grim Metaphor
Perez's leadership of the DNC during the last 11 months has been mediocre or worse. The problems go far beyond administrative failings, lack of inspirational impacts or shortcomings in fundraising. His mode of using progressive rhetoric while purging progressives from key DNC committees reflected a pattern.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 2, 2019 MoveOn's Phony New Campaign for "Protecting Whistleblowers"
MoveOn has not only refused to support courageous whistleblowers like Snowden, Drake, Manning, Kiriakou, and Sterling -- who've informed the world about systematic war crimes, wholesale shredding of the Fourth Amendment with mass surveillance, officially sanctioned torture, and dangerously flawed intelligence operations.
SHARE Wednesday, March 11, 2020 In a Dark Time, the Eye Begins to See': The Bernie 2020 Campaign Represents a Fight That Must Continue
No matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, many millions of people will refuse to unsee what has become all too clear:
** A gloating Democratic Party establishment, glad to rally around Potemkin candidate Joe Biden and extol his carefully crafted facade.
** Overall, interlocking systems based on greed and corporate power instead of shared resources and genuine democracy.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 27, 2015 The Invisible Man: Jeffrey Sterling, CIA Whistleblower
Two weeks ago, Jeffrey Sterling went to trial at last. He was at the defense table during seven days of proceedings that included very dubious testimony from 23 present and former CIA employees as well as the likes of Condoleezza Rice. Jeffrey Sterling is facing a very long prison sentence. As a whistleblower, he has done a lot for us. He should be invisible no more.
SHARE Friday, June 12, 2020 Corporate Media Are Focusing on Race -- and Dodging Class
News media habitually tiptoe around deadly realities of economic oppression that are hidden in plain sight -- so normalized that they're apt to seem perversely natural.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, August 9, 2019 Nancy Pelosi's Bad Attitude Toward Progressives
Solomon writes: Here's a thought experiment: Imagine that a letter from the billionaire real-estate broker George M. Marcus was hand-delivered to the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asking to meet with her. What are the chances that Pelosi would find time on her calendar?
(12 comments) SHARE Friday, April 17, 2020 Bernie's Pivot for Biden Might Not Be Pleasant, But Trump Must Be Defeated
Bernie Sanders is saying that progressives have a profound responsibility to fight against -- and oust -- the extreme right-wing forces that have gained control of the U.S. government's executive branch and, increasingly, the federal judiciary.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 19, 2018 It's the End of the World, and I Feel Terrible
All the talk about climate change and hardly a word about the ultimate climate disaster -- nuclear winter -- in which case, forget about agriculture. Or human life on earth. All it would take is a nuclear war with Russia. The frenzy of hostility toward Russia made negotiations less and less likely.
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, June 26, 2017 Is "Russiagate" Collapsing as a Political Strategy?
Even if the nuclear threat from continuing to escalate hostility toward Russia doesn't rank high on the list of Democrats' concerns on Capitol Hill -- maybe the prospects of failure in the elections next year will compel a major change. It's time for the dangerous anti-Russia fever to break.
SHARE Thursday, May 14, 2015 Don't Grade Justice on a Warped Curve: Assessing the Case of CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling
The only fair sentence for Sterling would have been no sentence at all. Or, at most, something like the recent gentle wrist-slap, with no time behind bars, for former CIA director David Petraeus, who was sentenced for providing highly classified information to his journalist lover.
(16 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Time to Renounce the "War on Terror"
As a perpetual emotion machine -- producing and guzzling its own political fuel -- the "war on terror" continues to normalize itself as a thoroughly American way of life and death. Ongoing warfare has become a matter of default routine...
Without a clear and effective upsurge of opposition from the grassroots, Americans can expect to remain citizens of a war-driven country for the rest of their lives.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 20, 2014 Why Amazon's Collaboration with the CIA Is So Ominous -- and Vulnerable
In view of Amazon's eagerness to dump the WikiLeaks site at the behest of U.S. government officials, what else might the Amazon hierarchy be willing to do? Amazon maintains a humongous trove of detailed information about hundreds of millions of people. Are we to believe that the CIA and other intelligence agencies have no interest in Amazon's data?
(10 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 25, 2021 GOP Hypocrisy Is No Reason to Support Neera Tanden
There are very important reasons to prevent Tanden from becoming the Office of Management and Budget director. They have nothing to do with her nasty tweets and everything to do with her political orientation.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, November 1, 2019 A Message to Progressives: Adam Schiff Is Not Your Friend
Schiff is tenaciously challenging a despicable president who should be impeached. At the same time, while Schiff has emerged as a marquee foe of Trumpism, we should be aware that he remains deeply enmeshed with corporatism and militarism.
(8 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 23, 2022 From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don't Justify Each Other
Russia's war in Ukraine -- like the USA's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- should be understood as barbaric mass slaughter. For all their mutual hostility, the Kremlin and the White House are willing to rely on similar precepts:
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 8, 2016 Democrats Launch New McCarthyism
Unwilling to examine the real reasons why Democrats did so poorly on Election Day, party leaders in Congress are scapegoating Russia and setting in motion a new McCarthyism, writes Norman Solomon.
SHARE Thursday, January 2, 2020 Buttigieg and Biden Are Masters of Evasion
Buttigieg and Biden dodge key questions by plunging into foggy rhetoric. They're incapable of giving a coherent and truthful account of power in the United States because they're beholden to corporate-aligned donors.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 24, 2019 Joe Biden: Puffery vs. Reality
the media meme about choosing between strong progressive commitments and capacity to defeat Trump is a false choice. On the contrary, Biden exemplifies a disastrous approach of jettisoning progressive principles and failing to provide a progressive populist alternative to right-wing populism. That's the history of 2016. It should not be repeated.
(26 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Time to Bell the Obama Cat
In recent days, the big cat in the White House has provoked denunciations from groups that have rarely crossed him. They're upset about his decision to push for cuts in Social Security benefits. "Progressive outrage has reached a boiling point," the online juggernaut MoveOn declared a few days ago.
Obama's move to cut Social Security is certainly outrageous, and it's encouraging that a wide range of progressive groups are
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 5, 2019 The Biggest Obstacle for Bernie Isn't the DNC
It's worth noting that the Post is owned by the world's richest person, Jeff Bezos, while MSNBC is owned by Comcast, "the world's largest entertainment company." To counteract the media propaganda arsenal now in place, we should fully recognize that arsenal as the main weaponry that corporate power will deploy against the Bernie 2020 campaign.
SHARE Thursday, February 1, 2018 Robert Parry Was One of the Good Guys
What made Bob Parry a trailblazer for independent journalism also made him a bridge burner with the media establishment. He refused to take on faith the official story, whether from governments or news outlets. Robert Parry carried the lantern high. Now others will need to carry it on.
(8 comments) SHARE Friday, November 11, 2022 The Biden Albatross
Joe Biden should not be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. If he runs for re-election, representing the status quo, the outcome would likely be disastrous.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 10, 2013 Denouncing NSA Surveillance Isn't Enough -- We Need the Power to Stop It
For more than a month, outrage has been profuse in response to news about NSA surveillance and other evidence that all three branches of the U.S. government are turning Uncle Sam into Big Brother.
Now what?
Continuing to expose and denounce the assaults on civil liberties is essential. So is supporting Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers -- past, present and future. But those vital efforts are...
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 16, 2014 James Risen's Painful Truths
President Obama promised a "transparent" administration -- but the American people didn't know the transparency would go only one way, letting the government look at the people while blocking the public's view of the government, a reality described in James Risen's new book, reviewed by Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, August 2, 2019 There's Nothing Moderate About "Moderates." A Primary Example Is Joe Biden.
Among the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, only Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are providing a coherent analysis and actual challenge to the realities of corporate power and oligarchy that are crushing democracy in the United States.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 6, 2013 Here Comes the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, Dragging a Broken Moral Compass
Despite all its claims of independence, the Oslo-based Nobel Committee is enmeshed in Norwegian politics. The global prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize has obscured the reality that its selection committee is chosen by leaders of Norway's main political parties -- and, as a member of NATO, Norway is deeply entangled in the military alliance.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, July 1, 2019 After Biden's Sharp Decline, Investors Are Reassessing Other Blue Chips
Investors are pondering where to put their money this week after the sudden decline in the assessed value of presidential candidate Joe Biden.
On Wall Street and in other corporate quarters where financiers were heavily invested in Biden, hopes have eroded in recent days amid reduced investor confidence.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, July 8, 2019 Corporate Team of Rivals: Harris Now in Top Tier with Biden to Prevent a Progressive Nominee
The odds are now very strong that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders will be the Democratic presidential nominee. New polling averages say they account for almost 70 percent of support nationwide, while no other candidate is anywhere near. For progressives who want to affect the news instead of just consume it, active engagement will be essential.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 7, 2020 The Pandemic Makes the Bernie 2020 Campaign More Vital Than Ever
It's possible that Sanders can gain enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee. But the Bernie 2020 campaign has never been only about winning. It has always also been about strengthening vital progressive movements while widening public discourse and political space.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 22, 2020 Class War -- Not the Media Hokey Pokey -- Is What It's All About
While negative coverage of Donald Trump has been common due to his handling of the pandemic, media outrage has been muted in relation to the magnitude of the dying in our midst at a time when most of the dying could have been prevented.
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, June 5, 2017 Dangerous Discourse: When Progressives Sound Like Demagogues
Democrat Jamie Raskin ... Reading from a prepared text, Raskin warmed up by declaring that "Donald Trump is the hoax perpetrated on the Americans by the Russians." Soon the congressman named such varied countries as Hungary, the Philippines, Syria and Venezuela, and immediately proclaimed: "All the despots, dictators and kleptocrats have found each other, and Vladimir Puti
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 14, 2020 The Sanders Campaign Was About "Us" -- Not Bernie -- Remember?
There are scant indications that the remnants of the Bernie 2020 campaign are doing anything to win "as many delegates as possible" in the 20 state primaries set for the next two months. That fact has left it up to individuals as well as independent groups and coalitions to do what they can to gain more Bernie delegates for the Democratic National Convention.
SHARE Monday, March 25, 2019 Bernie Is Not a Wind Sock
Bernie Sanders wrapped up a weekend campaign swing through California with a Sunday afternoon speech to 16,000 of us a few miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. News coverage seemed unlikely to convey much about the event. The multiracial crowd reflected the latest polling that shows great diversity of support for Bernie, contrary to corporate media spin. High energy for basic social change was in the air.
SHARE Monday, August 1, 2016 Hillary, "You're Screwing it Up": An Open Letter From a Bernie Delegate
Whatever the reasons for your current approach, the consequences could be catastrophic. Beyond the fleeting praise for Bernie, your message to his delegates in Philadelphia wasn't hard to discern: my corporate centrist way or the highway. If large numbers of Bernie supporters hit the road, you won't have anyone to blame but yourself.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, May 29, 2020 Amy Klobuchar, Minneapolis Police and Her Running Mate Quest
During the first years of this century, with a bright political future ahead of her, Klobuchar refused to hold police officers accountable. And her failure to prosecute police who killed black men was matched by racially slanted eagerness to prosecute black men on the basis of highly dubious evidence.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 8, 2013 Is War on Syria Veering Off-Script?
When the U.S. government readies for war, there is a well-worn script. A "bad" guy is defined; some act of perfidy is alleged despite murky evidence; politicians and journalists express righteous outrage; a confused public is dragged along. Except that the war on Syria may be veering off-script. There's an antidote to the repetition compulsion for war. It's called democracy.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 18, 2018 Beto, We Hardly Knew Ye
Progressives are apt to be enthusiastic about O'Rourke -- if they don't know much about his record.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 23, 2021 Will Senate Democrats Stoop to Confirming Rahm Emanuel as Ambassador?
When President Biden announced late Friday afternoon that he will nominate Rahm Emanuel to be the U.S. ambassador to Japan, the timing just before the weekend was clearly intended to minimize attention to the swift rebukes that were sure to come.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 29, 2022 Beware Corporate Democrats "Passing the Torch"
When a torch passes, we might be glad to "meet the new boss", but we should discard illusions. That way, hopefully we don't get fooled again.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 6, 2017 Instead of Trying to Sabotage the Trump-Putin Meeting, Democrats Should Support Vital Proposals
While many people are eager for constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia, on Capitol Hill the efforts to prevent such a possibility are fierce and unrelenting. Ultra-hawks like Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain are among quite a few Republicans doing all they can to prevent genuine diplomacy between Washington and Moscow.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 11, 2017 National Democrats Resist Reforms
Still refusing to face why Donald Trump and the Republicans won in 2016, the national Democratic Party rebuffs proposals from progressives to make the party more democratic and less corporate-dominated, writes Norman Solomon.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, April 24, 2020 Some Progressives Are in Denial About Trump's Fascist Momentum
Trumpism has started to feel normal. Trump stands a good chance of winning re-election in November. And his odds have improved because the Democratic Party nominated an abysmal candidate.
SHARE Thursday, January 23, 2020 Bernie Sanders Is Much More Than a Presidential Candidate
To corporate media, Bernie Sanders is incorrigible. He won't stop defying the standard assumptions about what's possible in national politics. His 2020 campaign with feet on the ground and eyes on visionary horizons is a danger to corporate capitalism's "natural" order that enables wealth to dominate the political process.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 4, 2021 Nina Turner's Loss Is Oligarchy's Gain
The race for a vacant congressional seat in northeast Ohio was a fierce battle between status quo politics and calls for social transformation. In the end, when votes were counted Tuesday night, transactional business-as-usual had won by almost 6 percent.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 18, 2018 Cardin's Anti-Russia Views Make Him a Fitting Opponent for Chelsea Manning
A nuclear war between the United States and Russia would do more than kill vast numbers of innocent people. Scientific research tells us that a nuclear holocaust would make the Earth "virtually uninhabitable." Sen. Ben Cardin is one of the loudest and most prominent voices for such hostility. He should be challenged.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, January 24, 2020 The Energizer Bernie and the Power Behind Him
The Bernie Sanders campaign is so profoundly compelling at the grassroots. It is oriented to meshing electoral work with social movements -- however difficult that might be at times -- to generate political power from the ground up. And that's where genuine progressive change really comes from.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, April 10, 2020 Bernie's Decision: Retreat Should Not Be Confused with Surrender
We don't have a choice of whether or not we're in a class war. It's going on perpetually -- waged with enormous financial, political and media firepower. The firepower of class warfare against Bernie Sanders has been ferocious and unrelenting.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, June 5, 2020 Solidarity Includes Wearing a Mask at Protests
Wearing a mask is about solidarity. Unfortunately, some protesters have not worn masks, perhaps unaware that they were putting others at risk. Meanwhile, some police officers have disregarded orders to wear masks.
SHARE Wednesday, July 1, 2020 Statement on Ro Khanna Leading the CA Democratic Delegation
The groundswell of support for Rep. Khanna to lead the largest state delegation to the convention has yielded a bonus -- the additional selection of his House colleague Barbara Lee. Their records in Congress show that they fully recognize the need for a fundamental change in national budget priorities.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 21, 2019 Reinventing Beto: How a GOP Accessory Became a Top Democratic Contender for President
O'Rourke is hardly eager for those upcoming voters to realize that the growth of his political career is rooted in an alliance with powerful Republicans that began 15 years ago. Or that he supported raising the minimum age for Social Security in 2012. Or that during six years in Congress, through the end of 2018, he often aligned himself with Republican positions.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, June 5, 2015 A Misleading Moment of Celebration for a New Surveillance Program
Many people in Europe and elsewhere who care about civil liberties and want true press freedom are looking at the United States: to understand what an aroused citizenry might be able to accomplish, seeking to roll back a dangerous accumulation of power by an ostensibly democratic government. Let's not unwittingly deceive them -- or ourselves -- about how much ground the U.S. surveillance state has lost so far.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 4, 2017 Killer Drones in the Empire State
Since last summer the Defense Department has been using the runway and airspace at the Syracuse Hancock International Airport to train drone operators, who work at the adjoining Air National Guard base. Officials say it's the first time that the federal government has allowed military drones to utilize a commercial airport. It won't be the last time.
(10 comments) SHARE Friday, August 26, 2016 The Debut of Our Revolution: Great Potential. But.
The live-streaming debut of Our Revolution continued a terrific legacy from the Bernie campaign of educating and agitating with vital progressive positions on such crucial matters as economic justice, institutional racism, climate change, Wall Street, corporate trade deals and health care. But throughout Our Revolution's live-stream, war went unmentioned.
(11 comments) SHARE Monday, May 14, 2018 As Midterms Near, New Polls Show Democrats Stalling
The Democratic Party is still dominated by elected officials and power brokers who appear to be deeply worried that a future progressive upsurge of political engagement could loosen -- or even end -- their corporate-funded grip on the party. Methodical grassroots organizing will be necessary -- to bring down the GOP's deranged leadership.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, March 7, 2014 Hillary Clinton on Putin: Playing a Dog-Eared "Hitler" Card
With the largest nuclear arsenals on the planet, the United States and Russia have the entire world on a horrific knife's edge. Nuclear saber-rattling is implicit in what the prospective President Hillary Clinton has done in recent days, going out of her way to tar Russia's president with a Hitler brush.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 16, 2022 Ominous History in Real Time: Where We Are Now in the USA
An all-out war on democracy is now underway in the United States. More than ever, the Republican Party is the electoral arm of unabashed white supremacy as well as such toxicities as xenophobia, nativism, anti-gay bigotry, patriarchy, and misogyny.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 5, 2013 Real Journalism v. Big Brother
In theory, pretty much everyone claims to like investigative journalism, even government officials. But the reaction is different when reporters expose troubling facts, especially if they make a favored country or politician look bad. Yet, that is what's needed.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, January 26, 2015 Hiding the Political Subtext of Sterling Trial
Whenever lawyers for ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling sought to illuminate the political context for his prosecution as a leaker, prosecutors objected with the support of the federal judge, but politics has always lurked in the case's background, writes Norman Solomon.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 4, 2017 Playing Chicken with Nuclear Annihilation
Much of Official Washington wants to escalate the confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia, ignoring the terrifying reality that this game of chicken could end life on the planet, as Norman Solomon observes.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, June 7, 2013 An Open Letter to Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
Senator Feinstein, your energetic contempt for the Bill of Rights is serving a bipartisan power structure that threatens to crush our democratic possibilities.
A huge number of people in California and around the country will oppose your efforts for the surveillance state at every turn.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 10, 2018 New Polls Show Anti-Trump Isn't Enough to Beat GOP
With six months to go before the midterm election, new national polls are showing that the Democratic Party's much-touted momentum to gain control of the House has stalled out. The latest numbers tell us a lot about the limits of denouncing Donald Trump without offering much more than a return to the old status quo.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, December 14, 2020 Bernie Sanders and Progressives in Our Winter of Discontent
At this point, Sanders and avid supporters of the Bernie 2020 campaign have ample reasons to feel frustrated, even "enormously" insulted. It's small comfort that Biden's picks so far are purportedly "not as bad as Obama's" were 12 years ago. That's a low bar, especially to those who understand that Barack Obama heavily corporatized his presidency from the outset.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, January 13, 2020 Biden, Buttigieg and Corporate Media Are Eager for Sanders and Warren to Clash
For progressives, the need for a Sanders-Warren united front is crucial. Yes, there are some significant differences between the two candidates, especially on foreign policy (which is one of the reasons that I actively support Sanders). Those differences should be aired in the open, while maintaining a tactical alliance.
SHARE Tuesday, February 4, 2020 Bernie Sanders Can Silence His Critics in New Hampshire
Whether they agree with Bernie or not, people widely understand that he absolutely means what he says. And that helps to explain why, during the next seven days, in national media and across New Hampshire, corporate forces will be in overdrive to prevent a Bernie Sanders victory in the New Hampshire primary.
(10 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 27, 2020 To Beat Trump, Stand Tall for Progressive Values
With another Trump presidency, the left would have few options and could face new levels of government repression. . Our democracy, our planet, and our human rights would continue to sustain enormous and potentially irreparable damage.
SHARE Tuesday, September 11, 2018 Tangled in the Garden of Good and Evil
A French television program tackles the tough questions of compliance and resistance.
The most widely acclaimed TV series ever about the Nazi occupation of France is a relentless epic with little use for the familiar images of craven collaborators and selfless resisters.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 4, 2015 Convicting Sterling to Chill Whistleblowing
In the cause of protecting government secrets, the CIA and Justice Department made an example of ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling by convicting him of exposing a dubious covert operation without presenting clear-cut evidence that he did, a chilling message to others, notes Norman Solomon.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, February 8, 2021 What About the "Unimpeachable" Offenses?
By narrowly defining which offenses are impeachable, political elites are implicitly telling us which offenses aren't.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 23, 2022 Bob Dylan and the Ukraine Crisis
Fifty-nine years ago, Bob Dylan recorded "With God on Our Side." You probably haven't heard it on the radio for a very long time, if ever, but right now you could listen to it as his most evergreen of topical songs:
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 10, 2013 Google: Doing Evil with ALEC
ALEC's reactionary efforts -- thoroughly documented by the Center for Media and Democracy -- are shameful assaults on democratic principles. And Google is now among the hundreds of companies in ALEC. Many people who've admired Google are now wondering: how could this be?
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, March 3, 2014 Heard the One About Obama Denouncing a Breach of International Law?
International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a "breach of international law." Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is "in direct, overt violation of international law."
Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Obama
SHARE Tuesday, September 17, 2019 The "Official Secrets' Movie vs. Joe Biden's Lies About the Iraq War
Joe Biden's recent efforts to deny his record of support for invading Iraq are marvels of evasion, with falsehoods that have been refuted by one well-documented appraisal after another after another . This month, Biden claimed that his vote for war on the Senate floor was somehow not a vote for war. Ironically, while he was spinning anew to deny the undeniable, theaters nationwide began screening a movie that exposes...
SHARE Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Power in a Time of Coronavirus
Rather than being a respite from political power struggles, the coronavirus emergency is greatly intensifying them. More aid for those immersed in greed will mean less for those in desperate need. The quest by corporate profiteers to mercilessly exploit dire situations has never flagged.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Spinning US Voters to Stay Passive
As public anger toward America's self-interested establishment bubbles into a boil, the mainstream media has grown frantic appealing to the masses to "stay sane," reject populism -- especially Bernie Sanders's variety -- and renew the establishment's lease on the White House, as Norman Solomon notes.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 15, 2018 Missile Attack on Syria Is a Salute to "Russiagate" Enthusiasts -- Whether They Like It or Not
U.S. media spent most of the last week clamoring for Trump to order air strikes on Syria. Powerful news organizations have led the way in goading Trump to prove that he's not a Putin lackey after all. One of the clearest ways that Trump can offer such proof is to recklessly show he's willing to risk a catastrophic military confrontation with Russia.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 26, 2015 Planting False Evidence on Iran
Prior to the U.S. intelligence community's 2007 assessment that Iran was not working on a nuclear weapons program, there was a scramble among U.S. and Israeli officials to show that it was. The CIA's Operation Merlin also revealed that U.S. officials were not above planting false evidence, writes Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 24, 2019 Will Biden's dog whistles for racism catch up with him?
Apt to be a big political liability among voters who normally vote Democratic in large numbers, Joe Biden's historic dog-whistling for racism is an incontrovertible reality. Denial of that reality could help him win the party's nomination and then help Donald Trump get re-elected.
SHARE Monday, June 10, 2019 Why an "Apology Tour" Is Needed: An Open Letter to Joe Biden
News outlets are reporting that you're determined to prevent your campaign from turning into an "apology tour" this summer. But your only other option is a campaign of denial -- sinking deeper into a quagmire of unsustainable pretense.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 14, 2015 CIA-Friendly Jury Seen in Sterling Trial
Accused leaker and ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling may face an uphill battle for acquittal as a northern Virginia federal court empanelled a jury that seemed generally sympathetic to the U.S. intelligence community, reports Norman Solomon.
(13 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 6, 2015 Bernie Sanders should stop ducking foreign policy
While unavailable on his campaign website and barely mentioned on the stump, the broad outlines of Sanders' opinions about foreign policy and war can be gleaned from interviews and Q&A portions of town hall appearances. For the most part, on those subjects, his outlook appears to be in line with the views of many Democrats on Capitol Hill.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 8, 2017 Let's Give the CIA the Credit It Deserves
Today, the massive new trove of CIA documents can help to put things in perspective. Maybe now people will grasp that our nation's undermining of democracy is home-grown and self-actualized. It's an insult to the ingenious capacities of the United States of America to think that we can't do it ourselves.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 1, 2020 Why Bernie Sanders delegates should keep fighting
Many "Berners" are frustrated and angry. It's not only that hopes for a Sanders nomination and presidency were abruptly dashed. More corrosive and significant is a common feeling that, despite his recent nods leftward, Biden remains largely oblivious to social imperatives.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 26, 2018 GOP and Corporate Dems Gain When Democrats Run Against Putin
Hammering on Russia is a losing strategy for progressives as most Americans care about economic issues and it is the Republicans and corporate Democrats who stand to gain, argues Norman Solomon.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, May 3, 2019 Bernie Sanders Is Everything Joe Biden Is Not
Four years ago, the media wisdom was that the 2016 Sanders campaign would scarcely get out of single digits. Media savants dismissed him and the political program that he championed as fringe. In timeworn fashion, when reporters and pundits made reference to any policy issues, the context was usually horseracing, which is what most campaign coverage boils down to.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, January 27, 2014 Cut Off the NSA's Juice
Serving the warfare state and overall agendas for U.S. global dominance to the benefit of corporate elites, the NSA persists in doing violence to the Constitution's civil-liberties amendments -- chilling the First, smashing the Fourth and end-running the Fifth. It's time to stop giving juice to Big Brother.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, December 5, 2016 Media Complicity Is Key to Blacklisting Websites
With so many people understandably upset about Trump's victory, there's an evident attraction to blaming the Kremlin, a convenient scapegoat for Hillary Clinton's loss. But the Post's blacklisting story and the media's amplification of it -- and the overall political environment that it helps to create -- are all building blocks for a reactionary order, threatening the First Amendment and a range of civil liberties.
SHARE Monday, September 13, 2021 As War Keeps Poisoning Humanity, Organizing Continues to Be the Antidote
Millions of Americans fervently oppose the military-industrial complex and its extremely immoral nonstop warfare.
CodePink and Massachusetts Peace Action hosted a national webinar to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 -- the day before Sunday's launch of the Cut the Pentagon campaign -- and the resulting video includes more than 20 speakers who directly challenged the lethal orthodoxy of the warfare state.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, January 13, 2023 The Myth of the "Moderate Republican" -- and Why It's So Dangerous
The current notion of a "moderate Republican" is an oxymoron that helps to move the country rightward. Last week, every one of the GOP's so-called "moderates" voted to install House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who won with the avid support of Donald Trump and got over the finish line by catering to such fascistic colleagues as Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, July 10, 2017 "Think Through the Implications of Our Actions": An Open Letter to Rep. Barbara Lee
Your declaration on Friday that you are "outraged" by a meeting between the presidents of the world's two nuclear-weapons superpowers is the opposite of restraint. Likewise, your baiting of Trump with the question "Where do his loyalties lie?" echoes the accusations of treason hurled at you for years.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 16, 2016 Sanders' Democrats Call for Change
The fallout from the imploded Hillary Clinton campaign is prompting demands from Democratic progressives for an immediate change at the top, in this case the resignation of interim DNC chairperson Donna Brazile, says Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 15, 2021 Bernie Sanders Has Bonded with President Biden. Is That Good?
President Biden's recent moves to curtail monopolies have stunned many observers who -- extrapolating from his 36-year record in the Senate -- logically assumed he would do little to challenge corporate power. Overall, Biden has moved leftward on economic policies, while Sen. Bernie Sanders -- who says that "the Biden of today is not what I or others would have expected" decades ago...
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, January 31, 2022 The United States to Russia - Do as We Say Not as We Do
As we face the most dangerous crisis in decades that risks pushing the world into nuclear war very few are doing anything more than mouth safe platitudes.
(14 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 18, 2018 Climb Down From the Summit of Hostile Propaganda
Public reactions to an open letter from academics, journalists and politicians asking for co-existence with Russia show many Americans don't buy the media's bellicose spin, as Norman Solomon explains.
SHARE Thursday, January 22, 2015 Leak Trial Shows CIA Zeal to Hide Incompetence
If Sterling goes to prison, a major reason will be that the CIA leadership is angry about being portrayed as an intelligence gang that can't shoot straight. The government cannot imprison Risen the journalist, but it may be on the verge of imprisoning Sterling the whistleblower. Based on the evidence, it would be delusional to think of the CIA as a place run by straight shooters.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, February 27, 2017 Trump Can Prove He's Not a Putin Puppet by Blowing Up the World
The frenzy to vilify Russia and put the kibosh on the potential for detente is now undermining open democratic discourse about U.S. foreign policy -- while defaming advocates of better U.S.-Russia relations in ways that would have made Joe McCarthy proud. Those who keep goading and baiting President Trump as a puppet of Russia's government are making nuclear war more likely.
(10 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 29, 2020 Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't Defeat Trump
The big banner headline across the top of the New York Times homepage as Tuesday got underway -- "TRUMP'S TAXES SHOW CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE" -- might give the impression that Donald Trump is finally on the verge of political downfall. Don't believe it for a moment.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 26, 2014 Jerry Brown's Service to the Gilded State
Brown has repeatedly disappointed -- and increasingly angered -- his party's progressive base, while helping pro-corporate Democrats in the legislature to move state politics rightward. Brown has effectively been reshaping the state's Democratic Party from the top down, turning some key aspects of its platform into little more than a wistful wish list.
(10 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 2, 2013 New Era for Progressives and Obama
With the danger of a Republican replacing Obama in the White House now behind us, progressives must proceed to systematically confront the administration in the process of reframing the national discourse on economic fairness, Wall Street, civil liberties, war and climate change. The next generations are depending on us.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 12, 2014 Amazon, the CIA and Assassinations
The entangling threads connecting technology, media and the surveillance state have snarled so completely that it’s next to impossible to untie them, exemplified by Amazon, the Washington Post, and the CIA’s pending assassination of a suspected American terrorist, as Norman Solomon explains.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, December 6, 2010 A Hollow Bomber Jacket
Evidence of the Obama administration's "moral collapse" is profuse; the pattern is clear, the consequences already terrible. During the weeks and months ahead, progressives will need to engage in fresh strategic discussions. Public candor may be insufficient, but it is necessary.
(8 comments) SHARE Monday, June 17, 2013 David Brooks, Tom Friedman, Bill Keller Wish Snowden Had Just Followed Orders
Edward Snowden's disclosures, the New York Times reported on Sunday , "have renewed a longstanding concern: that young Internet aficionados whose skills the agencies need for counterterrorism and cyberdefense sometimes bring an anti-authority spirit that does not fit the security bureaucracy."
SHARE Wednesday, November 23, 2016 In Resistance to Trump, "Community" Should Be a Verb
The solution to anti-democratic power is power -- truly democratic power -- from the grassroots, from the bottom up -- really our only hope. From protests and electoral work to public education and lobbying and legal interventions and so many other forms of organizing and activism, countless essential tasks await us.
SHARE Saturday, May 30, 2015 Persecution of CIA's Jeffrey Sterling
The U.S. government's successful prosecution of ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for leaking secrets about a failed covert operation to the press followed a long campaign against him for protesting racial discrimination inside the spy agency, writes Norman Solomon.
SHARE Thursday, April 15, 2021 Contrary to What Biden Said, U.S. Warfare in Afghanistan Is Set to Continue
There's no good reason to assume the air war in Afghanistan will be over when -- according to President Biden's announcement on Wednesday -- all U.S. forces will be withdrawn from that country.
What Biden didn't say was as significant as what he did say.
Biden did not say that the United States will stop bombing Afghanistan.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 21, 2013 Congress: End Endless War and Stop Becoming "the Evil That We Deplore"
"We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war," President Obama said in his 2013 inaugural address, after four years of doing more than any other president to normalize perpetual war as a bipartisan enterprise.
Repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force will be very hard. Revoking the power to combine lovely rhetoric with pernicious militarism w
SHARE Friday, January 20, 2017 Trump, the Democrats and the Logan Act
It should be obvious that the Logan Act is antithetical to free speech and other vital liberties. The law provides for up to three years in prison for "any citizen of the United States" who -- without authorization from the U.S. government -- "directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government."
(8 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 17, 2020 Trump's Climate Denial Gains Strength If We're in Denial About His Neo-Fascism
Spiking temperatures, melting glaciers, rising seas, catastrophic hurricanes and unprecedented wildfires are clear signs of a climate emergency caused by humans. Denying the awful reality makes the situation worse. The same can be said of denial about the current momentum toward fascism under Donald Trump.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 12, 2021 Why Corporate Liberalism Is No Match for Trumpism
Forces aligned with Donald Trump have been upping the ante all year with hyperactive strategies that could enable Republican leaders to choke off democracy, ensuring that Trump or another GOP candidate captures the presidency in 2024.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, July 21, 2014 Editorial Position of the New York Times: "Thumbs Up for Gaza Slaughter"
The New York Times, the most influential media voice in the United States -- where the government is the main backer of Israel's power -- proclaimed that the mass killing by the Israeli military was regrettable but not objectionable. By the lights of the Oval Office and the New York Times editorial boardroom, lofty rhetoric aside, the proper role of Palestinian people is to be slaughtered into submission.
SHARE Monday, June 14, 2021 How Democrats and Progressives Undermined the Potential of the Biden-Putin Summit
Democratic Party leaders have already hobbled the Biden Putin Summit potential to move the world away from the worsening dangers of nuclear war. After nearly five years of straining to depict Donald Trump as some kind of Russian agent -- a depiction that squandered vast quantities of messaging without electoral benefits -- most Democrats in Congress are now locked into a modern Cold War mentality that endangers human survival
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 10, 2017 The Democrats' Russia-Did-It Dodge
To avoid facing up to why Hillary Clinton's pro-corporatist candidacy really lost key Rust Belt states, national Democrats are finding it easier to blame Russia, a dangerous and self-defeating game, says Norman Solomon at The Hill.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 20, 2016 The Democratic Party's "Superdelegates" Are Super Wrong
Today, a big vestige of undemocratic processes remains within the Democratic Party -- "superdelegates." It will take 2,383 delegates to win the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in late July. They are pillars of the Democratic Party establishment, and they're hotwired into having a very large say in selecting the presidential nominee.
SHARE Friday, January 16, 2015 Race, Leaks and Prosecution at the CIA
Condoleezza Rice made headlines when she testified Thursday at the leak trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling -- underscoring that powerful people in the Bush administration went to great lengths a dozen years ago to prevent disclosure of a classified operation.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 22, 2010 Who Let the Blue Dogs Out?
It's one thing to support a Blue Dog Democrat in a general election against a Republican. It's quite another thing for members of the Progressive Caucus to defend a Blue Dog Democrat against a primary challenge from a genuine progressive Democrat.
SHARE Monday, August 17, 2015 Julian Assange and the Value of WikiLeaks: Subverting Illusions
Above and beyond Assange's personal freedom, what's at stake includes the impunity of the United States and its allies to relegate transparency to a mythical concept, with democracy more rhetoric than reality.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 12, 2014 Sen. Feinstein: Accidental "Whistleblower"
President Obama has stumbled into a scandal created by his determination to protect dirty secrets on torture and other CIA crimes committed by the Bush-43 administration. The unlikely “whistleblower†is another Democratic defender of CIA abuses, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, notes Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 24, 2021 The Urgent Need for a Biden-Putin Summit
Last week's outbreak of rhetorical hostilities between the White House and the Kremlin has heightened the urgent need for a summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 17, 2014 When hope turns rancid: LBJ and Obama
Living in a mass culture that encourages political passivity, all too many of Obama's ex-enthusiasts have drifted into quiet disengagement instead of creative enragement. While recent years have seen an upsurge of activism on issues that range from climate change and economic justice to civil liberties and war, the magnitude and intensity of such efforts must increase.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 9, 2020 Michèle Flournoy's Hopes Collapse
Just a few weeks ago, super hawk Michèle Flournoy was being touted as a virtual shoo-in to become Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Defense.
(9 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 21, 2013 JFK in Political Shades of Gray
Fifty years after the horrific day in Dallas, it's hard to think of John F. Kennedy apart from an aura of political sainthood. But mythology is disorienting in the long run, and we can do better with realism. JFK brought youthful intelligence and evocations of soaring idealism to the Oval Office. Kennedy relied on deft wordsmiths to produce lofty speeches about freedom and democracy.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 16, 2013 King: I Have a Dream. Obama: I Have a Drone.
After his Inaugural speech in January 2009, Obama has pursued policies that epitomize King's grim warning in 1967: "When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men." But Obama has not ignored King's anti-war legacy. On the contrary, the president has gone out of his way to distort and belittle it.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 10, 2020 Some of the Many Reasons Progressives Don't Like Joe Biden
There's truly an enormous amount in the Democrat's record to dislike, but progressives can get much better results fighting Biden than fighting Trump.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 23, 2013 Why Snowden's Passport Matters
President Obama declares his love of "transparency," but has an odd way of showing it, meting out harsh punishments to people who give the public a glimpse into the vast darkness of U.S. secrets, including revoking Edward Snowden's passport to stop him from seeking asylum.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 11, 2014 NYT Reverses on Merits of "Perpetual War"
President Obama's decision to expand U.S. attacks against ISIS radicals into Syria without that government's approval is fraught with risks, including that U.S. forces might be sucked into yet another Mideast civil war, but the New York Times seems all right with that, notes Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 6, 2013 Big Brother's Loyal Sister: How Dianne Feinstein Is Betraying Civil Liberties
Ever since the first big revelations about the National Security Agency five months ago, Dianne Feinstein has been in overdrive to defend the surveillance state. As chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she generates an abundance of fog, weasel words, anti-whistleblower slander and bogus notions of reform -- while methodically stabbing civil liberties in the back.
SHARE Monday, January 5, 2015 In Defense of a CIA Whistleblower
The mainstream U.S. news media sometimes rallies to the defense of a reporter who is pressured to reveal a source but not so much for the brave whistleblower who is the target of government retaliation. Such is the case for ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, writes Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 29, 2013 Digital Grab: Corporate Power Has Seized the Internet
The huge imbalance of digital power now afflicting the Internet is a crucial subset of what afflicts the entirety of economic relations and political power in the United States. We have a profound, far-reaching fight on our hands, at a crossroads leading toward democracy or corporate monopoly. The future of humanity is at stake.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 19, 2013 Oiling the War Machinery, From Oslo to Heathrow to Washington
For the Nobel Committee, more than ever, war is peace. Across the globe, aligned with and/or intimidated by official Washington, many governments are enablers of an American warfare/surveillance multinational state. And in Washington, at the top of the government, when it comes to civil liberties and war and so much more, the moral compass has gone due south.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, October 19, 2020 Why a Former Green Party Candidate Is on a Very Long Fast -- Urging Progressives to Vote for Biden to Defeat Trump
I asked Glick about the role of today's Green Party, which is actively seeking votes for its presidential candidate Howie Hawkins -- even in some of the most tightly contested battleground states... Glick replied. "But their electoral strategy of always running someone for president has alienated large numbers of people who agree with their principles and program."
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 22, 2013 Challenging Obama on Manning
Facing decades in prison, Pvt. Bradley Manning explained that patriotism drove his decision to reveal crimes hidden in classified documents. Now, it's up to President Obama to decide if he will pardon Manning or continue a strategy of making his punishment an example to others, as Norman Solomon notes in this open letter.
SHARE Wednesday, May 8, 2019 Joe Biden Likes Republicans So Much Because He's So Much Like Them
Recent criticism of Joe Biden for praising Dick Cheney as "a decent man " and Mike Pence as "a decent guy " merely scratches the surface of what's wrong with the current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. His compulsion to vouch for the decency of Republican leaders -- while calling Donald Trump an "aberration" -- is consistent with Biden's political record.
SHARE Thursday, February 4, 2016 Needed: Gun control at the Pentagon
American officials trumpet and praise the U.S.-led bombing campaigns in Iraq and Syria, which have involved close to 10,000 airstrikes since mid-2014. It is left to others to count the human costs. The coalition airstrikes last year killed at least several hundred civilians, including many children.
SHARE Wednesday, July 21, 2021 Who's Afraid of Nina Turner?
Nina Turner is very scary -- to power brokers who've been spending big money and political capital to keep her out of Congress. With early voting underway, tensions are spiking as the decisive Democratic primary race in northeast Ohio nears its Aug. 3 finish. The winner will be virtually assured of filling the seat in the deep-blue district left vacant by Rep. Marcia Fudge when she became President Biden's HUD secretary.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 10, 2009 Mr. President, War Is Not Peace
From President Obama, we hear that peace is the ultimate goal. But "peace" is a fixture on a strategic horizon that keeps moving as the military keeps marching. War is not peace. It never has been. It never will be.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 15, 2014 An All-Seeing, All-Knowing Being
A decade ago, exposure of President George W. Bush's Total Information Awareness scheme brought assurances that it had been shelved, but its Orwellian intent was only shifted to the NSA and it now gives the U.S. government nearly god-like powers, says Norman Solomon.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 9, 2013 Obama in Plunderland: Down the Corporate Rabbit Hole
Of course the Republican economic program is worse, and President Romney's policies would have been even more corporate-driven. That doesn't in the slightest make acceptable what Obama is doing. His latest high-level appointments -- boosting corporate power and shafting the public -- are despicable.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 11, 2013 Choosing Against the Surveillance State
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden explained his decision to leak top-secret documents as a response to America letting a ragtag group of terrorists scare the country into accepting a near-Orwellian surveillance state, a choice that can be challenged.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 6, 2014 Memo to Potential Whistleblowers: If You See Something, Say Something
Antidotes to the poisons of cynicism and passive despair can emerge from organizing to help create a better world. The process requires applying a single standard to the real actions of institutions and individuals, no matter how big their budgets or grand their power. What cannot withstand the light of day should not be suffered in silence. If you see something, say something.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 1, 2010 Israel and Harman in Tandem: From High Seas to Airwaves
Harman, a powerful member of the center-right Blue Dog Coalition, is one of the Israeli government's most valued allies on Capitol Hill. She's a standout -- even in a Congress teeming with fervent apologists for Israel's relentless suppression of Palestinian rights.
SHARE Monday, May 27, 2013 Our Twisted Politics of Grief
Let's face it: in the American political culture of our day, all grief is not created equal. Not even close.
SHARE Sunday, April 13, 2014 Why We Need Media Critics Who Are Fiercely Independent
On the whole, the media critics boosted by big media have been conformists who don't step outside the shadows cast by the institutions paying their salaries. And they're not inclined to question the corporate prerogatives of other media firms; people in glass skyscrapers don't throw weighty stones.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, July 19, 2013 A Portrait of the Leaker as a Young Man
Snowden's choice was ultimately personal. He decided to take big risks on behalf of big truths; he showed how easy and hazardous such a step can be. He blew the whistle not only on the NSA's Big Brother surveillance but also on the fear, constantly in our midst, that routinely induces conformity.
SHARE Monday, December 26, 2011 Uncle Sam is making the wrong choices
Charities and other nonprofits are struggling to cope with deep economic wounds that have been festering for years. The dire consequences are far more widespread than private agencies can possibly heal. Only government has the capacity to provide economic remedies for social distress of this magnitude. But government is failing.
SHARE Tuesday, November 24, 2020 Hey Joe, Where You Going With That Pentagon in Your Hands?
The frontrunner to be Joe Biden's pick for Secretary of Defense is Michèle Flournoy. It's a prospect that should do more than set off alarm bells -- it should be understood as a scenario for the president-elect to stick his middle fingers in the eyes of Americans who are fed up with endless war and ongoing militarism.
SHARE Wednesday, December 18, 2013 WPost Slips Behind Amazon's Cloud
Technology moguls -- many involved with high-tech U.S. intelligence projects -- are deploying their fortunes to buy up or start up media entities that give them control of the tone and content of journalism, including Amazon's Jeff Bezos and his Washington Post.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 13, 2013 Clarity from Edward Snowden and Murky Response from Progressive Leaders in Congress
As the largest caucus of Democrats on Capitol Hill, the Progressive Caucus could supply a principled counterweight to the bombast coming from the likes of Boehner and Feinstein. But for that to happen, leaders of the 75-member caucus would need to set a good example by putting up a real fight.
Right now, even when we hear some promising words, the extent of the political resolve behind them is hazy.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 20, 2013 Uncle Sam and Corporate Tech: Domestic Partners Raising Digital Big Brother
A terrible formula has taken hold: warfare state + corporate digital power = surveillance state.
"National security" agencies and major tech sectors have teamed up to make Big Brother a reality. "Of the estimated $80 billion the government will spend on intelligence this year, most is spent on private contractors," the New York Times noted. The synergy is great for war-crazed snoops in Washington and profit-crazed moguls
SHARE Monday, November 30, 2020 Some Liberals and Arms-Control Experts Are Cheering for War Profiteers to Be in Biden's Cabinet
Antony Blinken and Michèle Flournoy shamelessly teamed up to cash in while rotating through high positions at the State Department and Pentagon. At the same time, Blinken (the Biden nominee to be Secretary of State) and Flournoy (in the running for Secretary of Defense) have backed nonstop U.S. warfare.
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 1, 2013 Don't Vent, Organize -- And "Primary" a Democrat Near You
A good starting point to consider launching a primary challenge in your area would be to look at those 44 progressive caucus members of Congress who continue to refuse to make such a promise, leaving themselves wiggle room to vote for cuts in three crucial programs of the social compact.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 12, 2013 Memo from Oslo: If Peace Is Prized, a Nobel for Bradley Manning
Opening heart and mind to moral responsibility -- seeing an opportunity to provide the crucial fuel of information for democracy and compassion -- Bradley Manning lifted a shroud and illuminated terrible actions of the USA's warfare state. He chose courage on behalf of humanity. He refused to just follow orders. The Nobel Peace Prize needs Bradley Manning much more than the other way around.
SHARE Monday, November 9, 2015 The Digital Dog Ate Our Civil-Liberties Homework: "It's Just the Way It Is"
The message is that -- if you don't like mass surveillance and draconian measures to intimidate whistleblowers as well as journalists -- your beef is really with technology, and good luck with pushing back against that. Get it? The fault, dear citizen, is not in our political stars but in digital tech. A surveillance state or a democratic system -- which is to be master?
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, February 5, 2016 Shaking Up the Democratic Party
we're in the midst of the first major insurrection against the Democratic Party power structure in 28 years. The millions of us who support the Bernie Sanders campaign -- whatever our important criticisms -- should aim to fully grasp the huge opportunities and obstacles that await us.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 19, 2013 A Warfare State of Mind
Many Americans forget how intimidating it was a decade ago for any U.S. citizen to speak out against President George W. Bush's rush to war with Iraq. For example, the Dixie Chicks got death threats and actor Sean Penn was denounced as "a stooge of Saddam."
SHARE Tuesday, April 9, 2019 Rep. Barbara Lee's Startling Vote to Boost Military Spending
Barbara Lee's sincerity and commitment to peace are beyond question. But it's all too easy for lawmakers to be unduly influenced by party leadership on Capitol Hill, where conformity is vital for the warfare state. Only pressure from the grassroots has the potential to overcome the business as usual in official Washington.
SHARE Wednesday, February 12, 2014 Resisting the surveillance state of mind
Unless we directly challenge the system of mass surveillance now, the ruling elites may understand our complacency as consent, with results that extend the reach of surveillance and its damaging consequences. Even as it grows more familiar, this bulk collection of data is corroding civil society. The surveillance state generates fearful conformity.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 2, 2019 Pelosi and McConnell Crank Up NATO Madness
When NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg gives his speech to the assembled members of Congress Wednesday, you can count on the House speaker and Senate majority leader to be right behind him. The bipartisan enthusiasm will be obvious in tribute to a militarized political culture that is vastly profitable for a few, while vastly destructive in countless ways.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 22, 2014 J Street's Dead End
The hardline Zionist positions of AIPAC have given rise to a more moderate pro-Israel lobby called J Street, which deviates from some right-wing Israeli policies by favoring negotiations with Iran, for instance. But J Street still makes excuses for Israel’s repression of the Palestinians, write Abba A. Solomon and Norman Solomon.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 25, 2013 Overplaying Its Hand, Israel Still Holds Plenty of U.S. Cards
In the short run, the belligerent responses from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are bound to play badly in most of the U.S. media. But Netanyahu and the forces he represents have only begun to fight. They want war on Iran, and they are determined to exercise their political muscle that has long extended through most of the Washington establishment.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Terminating a Runaway General? Yes. But the Crying Need is to Terminate a Runaway War
none of such pro-war handwringing makes as much sense as a simple red-white-and-blue bumper sticker that says: "These colors don't run . . . the world." Fierce controversy has focused on terminating a runaway general. But the crying need is to terminate a runaway war.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 30, 2013 The Moral Verdict on Bradley Manning: A Conviction of Love in Action
No verdict handed down by the military judge can change the moral verdict that has emerged from people all over the world, reciprocating what Bradley Manning expressed online a few days before his arrest: "I can't separate myself from others." And: "I feel connected to everybody ... like they were distant family."
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 30, 2009 The Hollow Politics of Escalation
At the core of the enabling politics is inner space that's hollow enough to reliably cave under pressure. Typically, Democrats with antiwar inclinations weaken and collapse at push-comes-to-shove moments on Capitol Hill. The habitual pattern involves loyalty toward - and fear of - "the leadership."
SHARE Tuesday, April 16, 2019 The Toxic Lure of "Guns and Butter"
The most powerful commitment to escalation of military spending comes from Democratic leaders representing deep blue districts -- in Pelosi's case, San Francisco. Merely backing a budget that's not as bad as Trump's offering is a craven and immoral approach.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, August 30, 2013 While Cameron Defers to Parliament, Obama Locks into Warfare State of Mind
Some progressive groups and members of Congress have focused on urging that Congress get to vote -- or at least play a role -- in the decision on whether to bomb Syria. But we should not imply that we'll be satisfied as long as the matter comes to a congressional vote. Time is very short; we should cut through the preliminaries and get to the point: No attack on Syria!
SHARE Monday, March 29, 2010 A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood
"There's going to be setbacks," President Obama told the troops at Bagram Air Base. "We face a determined enemy. But we also know this: The United States of America does not quit once it starts on something."
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 27, 2018 Victory in Superdelegates Fight Means: Grassroots Can Win
Officials rarely decide to reduce their own power. And the Democratic Party has not made such a historic reform to its presidential nominating process in decades. So, how did it happen?