Category: Essays & Letters

In Which I Describe the Non-Voter

By Shawn Fleek Excerpted from Shawn Fleek’s “Certain About Everything, Except What To Do” The person I’m referring to would spend ten minutes describing rampant government corruption, the lack of participation, societal apathy, the cesspool of campaign finance, corporate power, and more. But they will not register to vote and participate in the official rule-making…

Inequalities, Taxes, and More Inequalities

By Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer Thanks to Occupy, most working people are well aware of the growing inequalities in wealth. But for those who lack the specifics, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a useful overview: “…the rich have been getting a larger and larger portion of total income. From 9 percent in…

The Next Stage in the Destruction of Syria

by Shamus Cooke The U.S. media has made its intentions clear: the ‘rebels’ attacking Syria’s government must have more support to advance Syria’s “revolution.”  This was the result of the much-hyped advance of Syria’s rebels into the country’s two largest cities, which the western media portrayed as a defining moment in global democracy. But “journalists”…

Celebrating the 14th Amendment: Long May It Stand?

by Michael Hulshof-Schmidt On July 9, 1868 the 14th Amendment was passed to the United States Constitution.  Not only did the 14th Amendment overturn one of the worst U.S. Supreme Court rulings, the Dred Scott case which precluded African Americans from voting by denying them the status of U.S. citizenship, it also helped to pave the way…

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: An Extremist 1% Global Attack

by Mark Vorpahl An international cabal of corporate lobbyists met behind closed doors in San Diego from July 1 – 7. Their aim was to move the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) toward completion. TPP negotiations have been in process for over two years, yet, until recently, its proposals and agreements have been carefully screened from public…

Chase and CVS Squeeze Local Businesses

This story is from the Occupied News Wire. It was originally published in the Occupied Wall Street Journal. by Shepherd Bliss I’ve operated the small artisan Kokopelli Farm, which grows mainly berries, for the last 20 years. It is located a couple of miles from small-town Sebastopol’s downtown commons in Northern California. Our town has…

Climate Change and the Next U.S. Revolution

By Shamus Cooke The U.S. heat wave is slowly shaking the foundations of American politics. It may take years for the deep rumble to evolve into an above ground, institution-shattering earthquake, but U.S. society has changed for good. The heat wave has helped convince tens of millions of Americans that climate change is real, overpowering…

Book Review: Occupy the Economy

By Shamus Cooke Any book with “Occupy” in the title should be read with great skepticism. Richard Wolff is prepared to attack such suspicion in his book “Occupy the Economy, Challenging Capitalism”. The book has an additional challenge that invites extra suspicion: Richard Wolff writes as an unabashed socialist, and socialists have an awful track…

Terror at the Cinema

This essay was originally published on The State. by Adam Rothstein Another uptown, suburban tragedy. Another list of white people who all died at the same time. Another day of America dying a little inside. It is a society engaged in its own suicidal death spiral, that attacks itself in existential crisis. Like an alcoholic…