That would render the Republicans permanently irrelevant.
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti react to a WSJ report that President Trump is planning to start a third political party.
That would render the Republicans permanently irrelevant.
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti react to a WSJ report that President Trump is planning to start a third political party.
Here it comes. January 6 gave the new regime the perfect pretext for escalating repression.
Saagar Enjeti discusses how the media is prepping the American public for a Patriot Act 2.0.
LOL
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti analyze the media’s treatment of President-elect Joe Biden.
Duh?
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti discuss how the Biden presidency will and will not change Washington.
By Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Reason
Today is President Donald Trump’s last day in office! A White House official said Trump plans to pardon or commute sentences for up to 100 people today. Whether it might include big-name whistleblowers (like Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner, and Julian Assange) or just more of the president’s crook friends and allies is anybody’s guess. In any event, Trump leaves office with a 34 percent approval rating and a record-low average approval rating of 41 percent.
With Americans still reeling from the January 6 Capitol riot, the Biden administration will begin its term amid a rapidly escalating “tough on domestic terror” mood.
That’s never a good influence no matter which ruling party is in office, and perhaps especially bad in times of intense partisan conflict. There are a few things both Democrats and Republicans can almost always come together on, and limiting civil liberties in the name of national security is chief among them. But worse, Biden has never backed away from hysterical policy reactions to perceived crime and terror threats.
“Biden’s career was built on the politics of panics,” Reason‘s Jacob Sullum writes. “After 9/11, Biden did not just vote for the PATRIOT Act, which expanded the federal government’s surveillance authority in the name of fighting terrorism. He bragged that it was essentially the same as legislation he had been pushing since 1994.”
By Keith Preston
It was 20 years ago this month, in January of 2001, that AttacktheSystem.Com first appeared.
Previously, I had been involved in radical activities since the late 1980s. For about five years, I was a conventional left-wing anarchist, engaging in strike support (Eastern Airlines, Greyhound Bus, Pittston Coal); antiwar activism (Central America, Indonesia, Cambodia, Persian Gulf War); joining the IWW and IWA/WSA; participating in riots in New York, Toronto, Berkeley, and at the Pentagon; creating student anarchist groups, a May Day festival, and homeless benefits; attending left-wing demonstrations (abortion, environment, war, homeless, anti-Klan); teaching a class on anarchism at an alternative school; attending an anarchist convention San Francisco and the founding gathering of Love and Rage; being distributor/writer for anarchist ‘zines, conducting anti-racism workshops, meeting a range of Left luminaries (Stokely Carmichael, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Philip Agee, Michael Parenti), attending early Green meetings in the US, spending many hours in the HX833 section of the library reading books on anarchist history, and too many other activities to remember. I mention all this merely to point out that I was the real deal.
by Don Fitz
Cuban blood left its stamp on the conscience of the world after the Angolan Wars of 1975-1988. Corporate politicians are united in their desire for us to ignore this reality.
* * *
Fed up with foreign wars, Portuguese officers overthrew Prime Minister Marcello Caetano on April 25, 1974. Many former colonies had the opportunity to define their own future.
Angola had been the richest of Portuguese colonies, with major production in coffee, diamonds, iron ore and oil. Of the former colonies, it had the largest white population, which numbered 320,000 of about 6.4 million. When 90% of its white population fled in 1974, Angola lost most of its skilled labor.
Three groups juggled for power. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), headed by Agostinho Neto was the only progressive alternative. The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (NFLA), led by Holden Roberto, gained support from Zaire’s right-wing Joseph Mobutu, a conspirator in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Jonas Savimbi, who ran the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), worked hand-in-hand with South Africa’s apartheid regime.
By Flint Taylor &Jeff Haas, Truthout
In March 1976, we sat in a cavernous Chicago courtroom while FBI agent Roy Martin Mitchell testified in the federal civil rights case that we and our partners at the People’s Law Office had brought on behalf of the families of slain Illinois Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and the seven survivors of the murderous pre-dawn Chicago police raid on their West Side apartment.
Thanks to the liberation of FBI documents from the Media, Pennsylvania FBI offices, the revelations of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities and our own hotly contested pretrial battles to uncover the truth about the raid, we had been able to document the local FBI’s central role in setting up the raid as part of the Bureau’s secret and highly illegal COINTELPRO Program.
By C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout
Even as the Biden administration takes the reins of power, the fact remains that authoritarianism and a fascist strain of political thinking have taken firm root on U.S. soil among a large proportion of its citizens. This utterly disturbing development will, according to Noam Chomsky in this exclusive interview for Truthout, be hard to contain. A recent poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Republicans continues to give a thumbs up to Donald Trump, even after the storming of the Capitol. In the wake of the attempted coup, and on the cusp of a new administration, what do the current political currents mean for the future?
Freddie Sayers meets American social psychologist and NYU professor Jonathan Haidt to discuss how the Right and Left positions have evolved over the past few years. (1) Harm/care, (2) Fairness/reciprocity, (3) In-group/loyalty, (4) Authority/respect, (5) Purity/sanctity. Those are the five moral ‘foundations’ on which, according to moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, liberals and conservatives divide.
Andrew Yang interviews Jonathan Haidt.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt joins the podcast to talk about moral foundations theory, human-centered capitalism, and how we can bridge today’s political divide.
Some “conservative” Trump fans explain what they like about him.
The Daily Signal
When trying to decide who to vote for in the next election, ask yourself what has President Donald Trump accomplished in office during his first four years. Has he been working for the American people? What has he accomplished?
Here is a partial list:
He has created the greatest economy we’ve ever had prior to being hit with COVID-19.
Record low unemployment for women at 3.2%. The number of women in poverty fell by nearly 600,000. The unemployment rate for Black Americans, Latino Americans and Asian Americans hit all-time lows. The poverty rate among Black Americans is at its lowest level in history. The median income for Latino Americans hit its highest ever recorded at $50,486 and Latino Americans are experiencing an all-time record of home ownership.
The president enacted a tax decrease that amounted to an average of $4,000 a year in tax savings to the average American taxpayer.
An assessment of Trump’s legacy from a left-liberal perspective.
, Vox
Four years ago, Donald Trump won the presidency and our shared reality hasn’t been the same since. The relentless pace of headlines, controversies, and tweets has rendered the country divided and unable to fully recollect the past. We struggle to recall what this president said or did last month, let alone in 2017.
Leading up to the 2020 election, Today, Explained will help you remember. In a five-part series, we’re bringing you The Trump Years: a look back at what Donald Trump did during his four years as president of the United States and what it means for the future of the American political experiment. The series will explore President Trump’s legacy, from health care to the coronavirus pandemic, from the economy and immigration to Special Counsel Robert Mueller and impeachment. Remember impeachment?
Kyle discusses how the ruling class’s “divide and conquer” strategy is working.
Tom Woods has what is probably the best discussion I have heard on this topic to date.
The rising ruling class moves to strengthen its position.
DC Bureau Chief at The Intercept, Ryan Grim, analyzes the Biden administration’s plan to handle big tech.
The comedy never ends.
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti react to a recent discussion between Hillary Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Russiagate.
Trump got elected using the strategy proposed by Steve Sailer some years ago (which actually worked, to my surprise). The question is whether it will be sustainable.
Saagar Enjeti analyzes the lasting effects President Trump will have on the Republican Party and all of American politics.
The wannabe monopolists are trying to shut down the little guys and upstarts.
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti react to new calls for social media censorship.
Fracture, fracture, fracture…
The Blue Tribe and Red Tribe both want total hegemony and the ruling class maintains its position by playing the two off against each other.
Krystal Ball discusses how the media has turned Americans against each other.