Global
Trump’s views on workers are not new
Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History Emeritus at SUNY/Albany who has
written extensively on peace movements, foreign policy, and economic inequality,
considers Trump’s record on American workers
(https://commondreams.org/opinion/trump-working-class). The title of his article,
published on May 21, 2024, says it all: “Trump Didn't Lift Up the Working Class.
He Stepped on Its Neck.” Here’s some of what he writes.
“Although Donald Trump, as president, proclaimed in his 2020 State of the Union
address that he had produced a “blue-collar boom” in workers’ wages, the reality
was quite different. Using his control of the executive branch of the U.S.
government, Trump repeatedly undermined the wages of American workers by
blocking raises and imposing wage reductions.
“Only the preceding year, Trump derailed vital wage legislation. In July
2019―with the pathetically low federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 per hour for
a decade and some 13 million workers holding two or more jobs to support their
The website of a certain pan-Arab media organization seems fixated on translating, commenting, or briefing its audience on everything that US and Israeli officials say about the Middle East.
Every threat made by US President Donald Trump, every tweet by an American official, however insignificant or inconsequential, somehow becomes a 'breaking news' story, worthy of follow-up and heated discussions, as if what Americans say, or fail to say, is the only factor that determines outcomes in our region.
There should be little doubt in anyone’s mind that the “wag the dog” relationship between the United States and Israel has done terrible damage to American institutions and constitutional liberties. The US bipartisan unconditional support of the ongoing Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the world which now despises America’s corrupt political system and its increasing bizarre and out of touch leadership. There were even reports this past week that Washington and Tel Aviv have been discussing shipping upwards of two million Palestinians to Sudan and Somalia, two of the most violent places on earth, to permit the development of Trump Gaza resort and the annexation of the rest of historic Palestine by Israel.
This year being the 30 th anniversary of Beyond Capital , it's high time for a broader audience to become familiar with this masterwork by István Mészáros. Following up on two previous installments in this series, this essay focuses on the implications drawn from chapters 15 and 16 . I encourage you to read them for yourself to draw your own conclusions.
Click here for the Spanish translation
It Takes Genius to Be Awed by the Obvious
There's an old proverb that anyone and everyone takes notice when the strange and unusual happen, like the hurricanes that came by while I typed the first and second drafts of these lines... but only real intellects can be overwhelmed by the obvious, such as wondering why there is an “up” and a “down,” and what could cause them.
In his first term as president, Donald Trump picked to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a virulent anti-EPA figure, Scott Pruitt. As the International Bar Association said back then, Pruit had been “the scourge of the EPA as attorney general of Oklahoma…abolished his office’s environmental unit” and, on a national level “sued the EPA 14 times.”
Moreover, the association which describes itself as the “foremost organization for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies,” added: “As a candidate for Oklahoma AG…Pruitt was bankrolled by the fossil fuel and power sectors, and by the Koch family of energy billionaires.”
Succeeding Pruitt as EPA administrator under Trump was Andrew Wheeler, whose background was as a lobbyist for major coal, chemical and uranium companies.
EPA standards were eliminated wholesale under Pruitt and Wheeler.
