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Archives for November 2017

Trump’s Twenty-First-Century American Populism

Rajan Menon takes a clear-eyed look at the populism of the Trumpian moment, the growing inequality that is increasingly the heart and soul of this society, and what is(n’t) being done about it.

Rajan Menon
By Rajan Menon
President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up after speaking to Navy and shipyard personnel aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Among the stranger features of the 2016 election campaign was the success of Donald Trump, a creature of globalization, as an America First savior of the white working class. A candidate who amassed billions of dollars by playing globalization for all it was worth -- he manufactured clothes and accessories bearing his name in low-wage economies and

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#HURESIST Is Anti-Racist Student Activism That Goes Beyond Trump

What #HUResist represents is genuine resistance against not just the symptom that is Donald Trump, but the disease of white supremacy.

Roqayah Chamseddine
By Roqayah Chamseddine
Student organizers attempt to deliver demands to Pres. Frederick, campus police called. (Photo: Twitter/#HUResist)

In the wave of movements and trends of the Trump era, #HUResist is a powerful and often overlooked student-led initiative at Howard University that goes beyond anti-Trump organizing. The student movement for administrative transparency started not long after President Donald Trump was elected. Students became aware of the cozy relationship

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William Binney: the Struggles of ‘a Good American’

A new documentary tells the story of ex-NSA official William Binney and his fight to get the federal bureaucracy to accept an inexpensive system for detecting terrorists while respecting the U.S. Constitution.

James DiEugenio
By James DiEugenio
The former US National Security Agency employee William Binney arrives for questioning by the German parliamentary NSA investigation committee in Berlin, Germany, July 3, 2014. The committee was tasked with investigating the NSA surveillance activities included the tapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (AP/Michael Sohn)

In my view, one could not find a better title for Friedrich Moser’s film about former National Security Agency technical expert William Binney than the one decided upon, A Good American. His life illustrates the cost some people pay when a person’s morality and professional ethics clash with a governmental bureaucracy that values neither. Friedrich

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Lebanese PM Hariri Silent on Saudi Detainment, Threatens to Re-Resign

Saad Hariri refuses to talk about what was done to him in Saudi Arabia, but renews calls for foreign meddling into his own nation.

Adam Garrie
By Adam Garrie
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri waves to his supporters from a window of his residence, in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 22, 2017. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanon’s once and future Prime Minister Saad Hariri has been highly vocal since his return to Beirut, after apparently being held in Saudi Arabia against his will following on from a forced resignation that has now been rescinded. However, while Hariri continues to speak to journalists, he has refused to offer any details about what actually

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Venezuela’s Communes Play Key Role in Countering Economic Crisis

In the face of economic crisis and US-led international encirclement, Venezuela’s communes continue advancing in the struggle for socialism from the bottom up.

Katrina Kozarek
By Katrina Kozarek
Communes like El Maizal and Pio Tamayo are at the vanguard of building Venezuela's 21st Century socialism. (Vero Canno)

Over the years we have all heard a great deal about the great social achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution, the government subsidized health program Barrio Adentro, the subsidized food program Mercal, the housing mission which provides free and affordable government organized housing to the poor and middle class, the Canaima program which

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In One Year, China Will Add More Solar Capacity Than Any Other Country Has — Ever

China’s investment in solar in 2017 is yet more evidence that the country is dead serious about being the world’s clean energy leader.

Zachary Davies Boren
By Zachary Davies Boren
A bus moves past by solar power and wind power farms in northwestern China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Oct. 10, 2015. (AP/Ng Han Guan)

It’s no secret China has been installing solar panels at a record-breaking rate — it’s been happening for years now. But in 2017 China took its solar drive even further, deploying more PV capacity in one year than any other country has — or at least had at end of 2016. Last week, Bloomberg New Energy Finance revised upwards its projection for new

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