The Coming Storm

** This article appeared in Counterpunch September 14, 2015 ** It is much easier to create a mess than to clean up afterwards.   But clean up we must.   In his piece for Counterpunch, The Sanders Paradox: a Brief for Bernie , William Kaufman constructs a veritable Augean Stables of illogic, sleight of hand and misrepresentations.   His snarky argument in support of Sanders’ bid for the Democratic nomination could be summed up as an embrace of the reactionary aphorism, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”   (Fred Baumgarten made the same observation in a Counterpunch article referring to a different Sanders apologia.) The concept, “The perfect is the enemy of the good,” is thoroughly caustic as it can be used to shut down any debate.   Find yourself disagreeing with some policy, position or campaign?   Hey, the perfect is the enemy of the good.   End of discussion. Kaufman doesn’t utter the horrid maxim explicitly, but he thoroughly em...

** This article appeared in Counterpunch July 24, 2015 ** In this election season, confusion and subterfuge are the order of the day.   Candidates and parties vie for our attention, each claiming to be uniquely qualified to represent the interests of the majority.   We know they’re lying but, as when observing any skilled illusionist, it can be difficult to spot the sleight of hand. One trick they rely on is getting us to focus on individual personalities rather than the social forces they represent.   If a candidate is intelligent, articulate, personable and skilled at using populist rhetoric, we are meant to be dazzled and distracted.   We are taught to ignore the organization and class forces that stand behind a candidate.   Once you agree to view things in this way, it becomes impossible to keep your eye on the ball.   Once we accept that the individual is what counts most, our manipulation is a foregone conclusion. Many sense that our ele...

** This article appeared in TruthOut March 27, 2015 ** Why Nationalization of the Energy Industry is an Essential Demand for the Climate Change Movement All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come. - Victor Hugo Ever since scientists discovered a runaway greenhouse effect on our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, we’ve known that climate Armageddon is a possibility.   Even though Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth, Venus’ thick cloud layer permits only 1/6 as much sunlight to reach the planet’s surface.   And while Mercury is nearly twice as close to the Sun as Venus, the surface on Venus is 10% hotter, measuring more than 864 degrees Fahrenheit.     Why is Venus so hot?   Its atmosphere is 97% carbon dioxide. We know that human activities are adversely affecting Earth’s climate.   Scientists began to draw our attention to the link between fossil fuels, greenhouse gases and climate in the 1980s...