The Coming Storm

Liberals and a host of self-described socialists argue that, deficient as his party and his personal record may be, people must vote for Joe Biden in 2020 because Trump and the Republicans are that much more odious. Once again, working people are urged by these pitiable strategists to vote for the least worst corporate candidate. Rather than weighing the full impact of lesser evil voting, its advocates pretend the scheme has only an up and no down side. But as we will see, the costs of lesser evil voting far outweigh any presumed benefits. Without a doubt, Trump’s policies and actions have been despicable – from his support for criminal aggression against Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, Yemen and elsewhere; his racist attacks on immigrants and people of color; his tax cuts for the rich at the expense of programs for working people; his deadly mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis; his eagerness in the wake of the pandemic to bail out corporation...

               ** This article was published on  Counterpunch  August  30, 2018 ** Humanity faces a multi-faceted crisis. Endless  wars   of imperial aggression, both overt  and   covert – from Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan to Yemen, Palestine and Central and South America. These conflagrations compel those at the bottom of the economic pyramid to fight and die to protect the wealth and privileges of those at the top. These wars destroy human beings and our natural environment, but also opportunities and resources that could be allocated to human betterment. Nuclear  arsenals   remain on  hair trigger   alert, with fearsome destructive potential, one accident or a single myopic policy decision away from wiping out the entire human race.  Economic inequality , having already reached  obscene proportions , is showing no sign of slowing down or reversing course. Racism, xeno...

** This article was published on Counterpunch  March 30, 2017 ** It’s a sleep that puts Rip Van Winkle to shame. The long, fitful slumber has lasted for more than a generation. But the alarm has sounded and the snooze button is wearing out. Sooner or later, the giant that is the American working class will awaken. When that happens, the game will be dramatically altered; the majority, so used to playing defense, will take the offense; the score, so long lopsided, will begin to shift. What will it look like once that celebrated last straw has been added to the camel’s back? How will we know that the long slumber is over? Oh, we’ll know! Union Power The place to focus our attention is on the working class. This is not for abstract, doctrinaire reasons, but because that is where the power lies. It is there that numbers and proximity to production combine to yield a force capable of challenging the 1% for control. Control of what exactly? The whole works, includi...

** This article was published on Socialist Action  November 9, 2016 ** Despite predictions to the contrary, Donald Trump has been elected the 45 th President of the United States.   What does it all mean? First the numbers.   44.4% of eligible voters (102.7 million people) did not vote.   The number of people who opted out is up three percentage points from the last presidential election in 2012.   Trump received 47% of the popular vote (59.4 million); Clinton edged him out with 48% (59.6 million).   Libertarian Gary Johnson received 4 million votes (3%), and the Green Party’s Jill Stein received 1.2 million votes (1%).   Other candidates combined garnered some 800,000 votes, or about 0.7%. So as usual, “none of the above” was the winner by a landslide.   Next in line was Democrat Hillary Clinton, who actually won the greatest share of the popular vote.   Nonetheless, Republican Donald Trump was crowned the winner, having ben...