The Military Comes First: A Long-Standing Consensus of Democrats and Republicans

 While Democrats and Republicans face off on Biden's Build Back Better program designed to address pressing social and environmental problems, both parties have reached a happy consensus on increasing the military budget by 24 billion dollars. This in spite of US withdrawal from Afghanistan. While intense debate takes place in Congress and aired in the corporate media over every penny to be spent on social programs and the environment, there is virtually no public discussion on the specifics of military spending. Considering that 100% of the military budget is directly or indirectly about killing people, both Democrats and Republicans are in agreement that killing people takes preference over the needs of the majority in the U.S. and protecting the environment. The agreement encompasses the corporate media as well. Biden, who so much treasures consensus with Republicans, should be delighted at this coming together with his friends across the aisle.

The State of U.S. Democracy and its Supreme Court

Progressives need to raise the real issue related to the Harvard affirmative action and Texas’ reproductive rights cases to be decided upon by the Supreme Court. The real issue is how is it possible that 6 of the 9 Supreme Court justices are right-wing Republicans in a nation in which the Republicans have won only one presidential election by popular vote in the last thirty years. Similarly, how is it possible that one congressman, Joe Manchin, gets to veto all-important socio-economic legislation when his California colleagues, who support that legislation, represent 23 times more people but their vote has the same weight in congress. Joe Biden’s “Summit for Democracy,” in which such outstanding champions of democracy as Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi and Poland’s Andrzej Duda will have a voice, ought to take up those types of issues. 

 

One of Juan Guaidó’s Closest Allies Calls Guaidó out for being Complicit in Acts of Corruption

Julio Borges, one of Juan Guaidó’s closest allies, resigns as “chancellor” of Venezuela's parallel government, which he calls on Guaidó to dissolve. Borges slams Guaidó for the corruption stemming from the assets which the U.S. government has handed over to Guaidó. Doesn’t Washington share responsibility for this highway robbery? Shouldn’t this be a banner headline in the NY Times, particularly because it exposes the folly of the U.S. recognition of Guaidó’s make-believe government? Fat chance.