Economy

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester | – ( ProPublica) – Ever since he was a medical student, Dr. Neil Martinson has confronted the horrors of tuberculosis, the world’s oldest and deadliest pandemic. For more than 30 years, patients have streamed into the South African clinics where he has worked — migrant workers, malnourished children and pregnant […]

Artificial Intelligence

Swarms vs. Swarms: How Intelligent, Artificial or Otherwise, is any of This?

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – A war with China may not be inevitable, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks observed recently, but it’s a genuine possibility and so this country must be prepared to fight and win. But victory in such a conflict will not, she suggested, come easily. China enjoys an advantage in certain measures of […]

Far Right

The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority: How Leonard Leo built a machine that is Remaking the American legal system

ProPublica

By Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz | – ( ProPublica ) – The party guests who arrived on the evening of June 23, 2022, at the Tudor-style mansion on the coast of Maine were a special group in a special place enjoying a special time. The attendees included some two dozen federal and […]

Climate Crisis

Getting Mad and Getting Even: Is California’s Climate Lawsuit against Big Oil a Gamechanger?

Juan Cole

Reprinted from Tomdispatch.com : See the original site for Tom Engelhardt’s crucial introduction. ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The depths of depravity into which unvarnished capitalism can plunge mortal souls is incalculable. It should come as no surprise then that oil company executives and the officials of petrostates like Saudi Arabia have so assiduously lied to […]

Homelessness

How America Abandoned our Poor: Confronting the Needless Scourge of Poverty

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – On the island of Manhattan, where I live, skyscrapers multiply like metal weeds, a vertical invasion of seemingly unstoppable force. For more than a century, they have risen as symbols of wealth and the promise of progress for a city and a nation. In movies and TV shows, those buildings churn […]

Corporations

Medicare Advantage Overbills Taxpayers by $140 Billion a Year — Enough to Wipe Out Medicare Premiums

Common Dreams

Jake Johnson ( Commondreams.org ) – A report published Wednesday estimates that privately run, government-funded Medicare Advantage plans are overcharging U.S. taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year, a sum that could be used to completely eliminate Medicare Part B premiums or fully fund Medicare’s prescription drug program. Physicians for a National Health […]

Corporations

Meeting Union Demands would be a Win-Win for Automakers

OtherWords

By Sonali Kolhatkar ( Otherwords.org) – The United Auto Workers (UAW), a union of nearly 150,000 workers at America’s “Big Three” automakers, are on strike. On the face of it, UAW’s demands sound audacious. They’re calling for a 46 percent pay raise and a four-day workweek, among other things. But in the broader context of […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change is our Biggest Security Threat: Our Federal Budget Should Reflect That

OtherWords

By Lindsay Koshgarian, Alliyah Lusuegro ( Otherwords.org ) – As the hottest summer in human history approached its end, tens of thousands of climate marchers rallied in New York to call for bold climate solutions. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington lurched toward another fight over the federal budget. More than ever, the U.S. needs to get […]

Corruption

Clarence Thomas Secretly Helped Raise Money for Koch Network, Which has Cases before the Court

ProPublica

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski | – ( ProPublica ) – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ decadeslong friendship with real estate tycoon Harlan Crow and Samuel Alito’s luxury travel with billionaire Paul Singer have raised questions about influence and ethics at the nation’s highest court. On Jan. 25, 2018, dozens of private […]