Throughout American history centralized, federally subsidized infrastructure projects have been a recurring theme for plutocratic interests. Under the Whigs (“internal improvements”) and the Gilded Age GOP (railroad land grants) it was promoted by parties that unabashedly identified themselves as advocates for national commercial interests. But with the rise of the Progressive movement at the turn…

Solitamente associo termini come “tradimento” e “sedizione” ad ignoranti di destra come l’associazione degli ex combattenti americani. Per questo mi viene la pelle d’oca quando sento sedicenti progressisti che si appropriano di quei termini a proposito della lettera che Tom Cotton e altri 47 senatori repubblicani hanno spedito all’Iran. In breve, il gruppo repubblicano in…

I normally associate terms like “treason” and “sedition” with right-wing know-nothings like the American Legion. So it’s eye-rollingly painful, in cases like the letter to Iran from Tom Cotton and 47 other Republican senators, to hear self-described progressives seize on those terms. By way of background, the Congressional GOP recently invited ultra-hawkish and ultra-racist Israeli…

The US Congress approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline’s fourth phase on February 11, with the bill scheduled to land on president Barack Obama’s desk for a likely veto sometime after the “President’s Day” recess. Near-unanimous support for Keystone from self-proclaimed “conservatives” and “libertarians” is disappointing but unsurprising. This government land grab is just…

C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “Blue or Red, They’re All About the Green” read by Christopher B. King and edited by Nick Ford. To glimpse the true relationship between big business and the State, we need only briefly examine the data on how the political action committees (PACs) of the nation’s largest and most influential companies…

American political dialogue often overlooks the difference between “pro-business” and “pro-market.” Failure to observe the implications of this difference leads both pundits and voters to believe that if a candidate is pro-business, naturally he is a zealous crusader for free markets. Lately this oversimplified narrative finds itself challenged as business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce increasingly…

It’s common for Democrats to depict themselves as the “party of compassion,” as opposed to the Wall Street stooges in the GOP,  resorting to soccer mom rhetoric about “American working families” and “sitting around the kitchen table.” Republicans, on the other side, frame themselves as the “free enterprise” party — unlike those anti-business socialists on…

“To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. … To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed,…

Ich setze als bekannt voraus, dass kein Politiker mehr als Hohn und Spott verdient, dass sie samt und sonders ein System der Macht und Privilegien repräsentieren, das auf legalisierten Raub in einem gigantischen Maße hinausläuft. Nun, nachdem das gesagt wurde, mögen Republikaner – für ihre verblüffende Fähigkeit, sich von der Realität loszulösen – den Preis für…

D’Amato: As much as I hate to spoil the ending, neither Democrats nor Republicans are interested in anything like a real free market.

“los ricos ya han sido los sujetos de la caridad el tiempo suficiente”

“Rich people have been the subjects of charity long enough.”

Es el “juego de la gallina” de Rebelde sin Causa que vuelve a repetirse. Pero esta vez están conduciendo TUS autos.

It’s the “chickie run” from Rebel Without a Cause all over again. But this time they’re driving YOUR cars.

Morgenstern: And, like it or not, more and more people are becoming nobodies.