USA/Canada

At the court of King Donald

Members of the MAGA [Make America Great Again] cult hold many bizarre notions. One of the wackiest is that President Biden is actually dead and his role is being played by various actors wearing masks. James Woods and Jim Carrey are the most commonly cited impersonators. One can understand, if that’s the right word, Trumpers imagining Jim Carrey being part of some nefarious “libtard” plot, because he has been quite outspoken in his opposition to Trump. Woods? He is one the few in Hollywood staunchly pro-Trump. Sad to say another is one time Oscar winner Jon Voight. Eight years ago Voight...

Trump: the plutocrat as monarch

For decades he was portrayed as the New York face of glamorous capitalism, attractive to a lot of people. He was a child of privilege, yet somehow, mysteriously, like capitalism itself, so to speak, he was a self-made man. He inherited from his billionaire father, yet he owed nothing to anyone else. He himself embodied “success”. That was even the name he gave to a perfume he launched: “Success, by Trump”. He put his name on great New York buildings. Trump was his name and Trump was his brand. It became the very name of “success”. People would touch him in the streets of New York City in the...

Teetering on the brink of wider war

The drone attack that killed three US troops in Jordan on 28 Jan has led to an escalated US response to Iranian-backed militias. The US says it has hit 85 targets in Iraq and Syria in early February. Especially given how long it has taken the US to respond, this will have been far from a decisive blow against the militias and their arms caches. Since 7 October, there have been over 160 attacks on US troops in Syria and Iraq. 28 Jan was the first resulting in soldier deaths, which meant the US was almost certain to respond. The targets are the local militias, but the message it sends is to the...

What the “Rustin” film leaves out

Colman Domingo has just been nominated to win an Oscar for best actor. I hope he wins — and not just because he did an excellent job playing American civil rights leader Bayard Rustin in the recent film made about his life. I hope he wins and uses his platform, when the eyes of America and much of the world will be on him, to speak about who Bayard Rustin was, and his legacy. Anyone making a film about the life of Rustin, or any other prominent individual, is forced to make choices. Not everything can go into a movie lasting at most a couple of hours. Choices are made. In the case of Rustin...

Catastrophe in Gaza, says Sanders

Bernie Sanders has forced a vote on directing the US State Department to look into whether Israel is using U.S. equipment or assistance to violate human rights in Gaza. He spoke to Jake Tapper on CNN about it on 14 January. What is going on in Gaza right now is a horrendous humanitarian catastrophe. 23,000 people have been killed, almost 60,000 have been wounded, and two thirds of the people who have been killed are women and children. 70% of the housing units in Gaza have been destroyed. If I use the word Dresden, Germany, you think about the horrific destruction during World War Two of that...

USA: a blueprint for dictatorship

The far right have a plan to remake America. They have written it down and you can Google it! Trump has said he will be dictator on day one. The Heritage Foundation is promoting Project 2025 , described as a plan “to reshape the federal government to support the agenda of Donald Trump.” Effectively, it’s a blueprint for dictatorship. A massive purge of the civil service is envisioned, including trawls through social media accounts to weed out heretics. Grounds for sacking include participation in diversity, equality and inclusion programmes. Experience and expertise are also deemed reason for...

Suburbs, sprawl, and organising

In his latest Substack newsletter , US socialist and labour-movement writer and activist Eric Blanc writes about the challenges posed for workplace organisation by the fact that many more workers live over wider areas than in the past. He notes that the average American today commutes 20.5 miles to work each way — a 27 per cent commute time increase since 1980 (the first year the US Census began tracking the figure). Britain gives the same picture for average work-commute distances. 1890-99: 2.23 miles; 1930-39: 4.34 miles; 1999-98: 9.07 miles; 2019: 11.5 miles. This means that union...

Bernie Sanders: "a horrendous catastrophe" in Gaza

Bernie Sanders is trying to force a vote to direct the U.S. State Department to look into whether Israel is using U.S. equipment or assistance to violate human rights in Gaza. He spoke to Jake Tapper on CNN about it on 14 January ( click here for video ). What is going on in Gaza right now is a horrendous humanitarian catastrophe. 23,000 people have been killed, almost 60,000 have been wounded, and two thirds of the people who have been killed are women and children. 70% of the housing units in Gaza have been destroyed. If I use the word Dresden, Germany, you think about the horrific...

1924: when they all came together

The Bernie Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020 were a high-water mark for Socialist politics in the U.S. Sanders, who campaigned as a Democrat, won over thirteen million votes, 43% of the total, in his first attempt. The self-defined “democratic socialist” came within a hair’s breadth of defeating Hillary Clinton and winning the Democratic nomination. He would almost certainly have defeated Donald Trump in the general election. It was a remarkable result, considering the history of socialist politics in the U.S. Most historians point to 1912, when Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party candidate...

The populist path to authoritarian rule

A Presidential candidate who went around brandishing a chainsaw, claims he got hints on strategy from his cloned mastiff hounds, and relishes in the nickname El Loco? The warning signs were not enough to deter the majority of voters in Argentina from electing anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei their president. Milei’s policies comprise a far-right fantasy wish list for the country. Abolish its currency and central bank. Give the rich massive tax cuts at the expense of social security programmes. Legalise the sale of human organs. Criminalise abortion. Remove controls on gun ownership. Cut ties...

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