8 November 2024

America’s Descent Into Fascism Can Be Stopped

[Graphic: Trump Troops by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT (Reprinted with Permission)]

By: Henry A. Giroux
Source: Counterpunch

Editor's Note
In this critical article, Dr. Giroux does a deep analysis and while I would love to write a fully integrated introduction to this work, that is not possible at this time. So I will confine myself to two key areas: the issue of the working class, and some commentary on the Powell Memorandum that Dr. Giroux includes in his analysis.

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Category: Activists, Autocracy, Education, Hegemony, Henry A. Giroux, Ideology, Mythology, Neoliberalism, Pull Right - Fascism, Trump | Comments Off on America’s Descent Into Fascism Can Be Stopped
30 October 2024

‘This Is Just the Traceable Money’: $2 Billion Pumped Into 2024 Election by Billionaire Families

[Graphic: $1 Billion in $100 bills (Bilbo’s Random Thoughts)]

By Julia Conley
Source:  CommonDreams

Editor's Note
The graphic above shows what $1 billion looks like. It is a stunning amount of money. More than twice that much has been pumped into this year’s elections but the super-rich alone. With the late entry of Musk to the Trump campaign this outrageous sum will jump considerably. It is too late this time around, but we must have significant campaign reform that brings campaign spending under control. Right now our democracy is at risk by a narcissistic demagogue and those who want to profit from his becoming president again. There is no doubt that the United States is facing an existential threat. Further, even if Trump loses we are in for decades of effort and vigilance to pull back from the fascist cliff on which we hang.

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Category: 2024, 2024 Elections, Autocracy, Guest, The .01% | Comments Off on ‘This Is Just the Traceable Money’: $2 Billion Pumped Into 2024 Election by Billionaire Families
28 October 2024

A Terrifying Choice Awaits Us

[Graphic: Future Politics]

By Robert C. Koehler
Source:  CommonWonders

Editor's Note
I share with my friend, Robert Koehler, the feeling that voting is a sacred duty. It is something that I cannot take for granted as I know the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people to make this privilege possible for me. I cannot smear that gift by eschewing it or taking it lightly. Further, if we look at the current state of one of the two major parties becoming a White Christian Nationalist party that is already undermining important rights, then this may be the last vote that I have. 

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Category: 2024 Elections, Autocracy, Dictatorship, Robert C. Koehler | Comments Off on A Terrifying Choice Awaits Us
20 October 2024

Do You Really Want Government Run Like A Business, Or By A Business Person?

By Rowan Wolf

There is a long-running argument that government should be run like a business, and/or a businessman would be a better President than a politician. This is based upon the (faulty) belief that business is more “efficient” than the government (or public servants). This is also what at least 50 years of efforts by Republicans (and the forces driving them) to undermine faith in all levels of government, the public sector, and voting. The goal has been to disenfranchise the public as the fewer people participating, the smaller the block they must coordinate in order to gain power and keep it. But motivation for promoting the belief in the efficacy of “business” and the “wisdom” of the leaders thereof, is not the primary issue here. My focus is to talk about the peculiarities of the public sector and government, and the lies promoting the belief in business.

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Category: Autocracy, Corporate - Corporatization, Government, Lies Damn Lies - Propaganda, Mechanisms of Contrrol, Private Corrections, Rowan Wolf - UTJ Editor | Comments Off on Do You Really Want Government Run Like A Business, Or By A Business Person?
13 October 2024

Long Road Ahead – Trump and Beyond

[Photo: Long Road Ahead (Death Valley, Ca. by Jon Rawlinson. ]

By Rowan Wolf

I was recently given a terminal diagnosis and told that I have about 6 months to live. As you might imagine, this has set off a firestorm of emotions and a lengthy evaluation of my life and what to do with the time I have left whether that be the estimated six months or hopefully longer. But even before this, especially with the election of Trump in 2016, was the deep sadness of decades of effort by millions of people to advance the causes dear to my heart – justice, equality, and protecting our beautiful planet – was being deliberately destroyed. Now I look forward and see not only how much of my personal goals have been left incomplete, but how much has been undone by forces with a far different agenda than mine. Even worse, we are running backward and cherished gains and dreams are being ripped up and thrown aside. I wanted to save the world (or at least make it better). Instead, I’m leaving it in even worse shape.

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Category: Activists, Democracy, Dictatorship, Futurescape, New Right, Rowan Wolf - UTJ Editor, Save Democracy, The .01%, White Nationalism | Comments Off on Long Road Ahead – Trump and Beyond