History They Don’t Want You To Know

Meet The Economist Behind The One Percent’s Stealthy Overthrow Of America

    The Holy Grail was the Constitution: alter it and you could increase and secure the power of the wealthy in a way that no politician could ever challenge. By Lynn Parramore Institute For New Economic Thinking (5/30/18) Ask people to name the key minds that have shaped America’s burst of radical right-wing attacks on working conditions, consumer rights and public services, and they will typically mention figures like free market-champion Milton Friedman, libertarian guru Ayn Rand, and laissez-faire economists Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. James McGill Buchanan is a name you will rarely hear unless you’ve taken several…


Trump Is No Aberration. He’s The Logical Product Of A Bipartisan Failed State

  “Donald Trump’s presidency is not an aberration of U.S. history in substance. His rise to power and the policies he has implemented are, in many ways, the logical product of the U.S. as a failed state, politically and functionally. Trump says the quiet parts about the system out loud, but his agenda is firmly rooted in the bloody history of this republic. And his rise was made possible by the failed two-party system and the corporate dominance of electoral politics in the U.S. Also, let’s not pretend that congressional Democrats have not enabled Trump by regularly voting for his obscene…


Circling The Drain: The Rich Wanted To Strangle A Tiny Government In A Bathtub To Avoid Taxes; Now It Turns Out We Need A Competent State

Right wing false economy: A “closed indefinitely” sign has literally been hung on the American economy. By Jim Hightower Other Words (4/15/20) Amazingly, America has become a nation of socialists, asking in dismay: “Where’s the government?” These are not born-again Bernie Sanders activists, but people of all political stripes (including previously apolitical multitudes) who are now clamoring for big government intervention in their lives. Nothing like a spreading coronavirus pandemic to bring home the need that all of us have — both as individuals and as a society — for an adequately funded, fully functioning, competent government capable of serving…


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Humanity Has Been Here Before: How The Rich Reacted To The Bubonic Plague Has Eerie Similarities To Today’s Pandemic

Josse Lieferinxe’s ‘Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken’ (c. 1498). Wikimedia Commons By Kathryn McKinley The Conversation (4/16/20) The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor. The wealthy work remotely and flee to resorts or pastoral second homes, while the urban poor are packed into small apartments and compelled to keep showing up to work. As a medievalist, I’ve seen a version of this story before. Following the 1348 Black Death in…



“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. “

  “Men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. … There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. … In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” — John Steinbeck, The Grapes Of Wrath (1939) ***** Wisconsin Dairy Industry Calls For Help As Farmers Forced To Dump Milk Amid COVID-19…



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“The Longest War” — The US Lost In Afghanistan

40 years of involvement 20 years of war  $1 trillion (and counting) For what? Buried Treasure / Skullduggery (4/16/20) Greg Barker, the director of The Longest War documentary, joins Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman on Skullduggery’s “Buried Treasure.” The group discuss all things Afghanistan. From the origins of our involvement with the country to the current state of a potential peace deal with the Taliban. A puzzle that has yet to be solved from President Carter on through to President Trump. The Longest War Documentary on ShowTime. Link To 34-Minute Audio The Longest War  Trailer — This documentary feature unpacks the human stories…


Why It Needs To Be Called: Trumpandemic

See The Timeline Of The Murderous Disinformation Trump Spread About The Coronavirus By Tom McCarthy The Guardian (4/14/20) “What a problem. Came out of nowhere.” That’s how Donald Trump described the coronavirus pandemic in early March, during a televised visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For weeks he had been giving Americans the same advice: “We have it totally under control”; “USA in great shape!”; and, of course, “Fake news”. But privately, Trump was being warned of a “full-blown Covid-19 pandemic” and “1-2 million” American deaths, according to internal emails, memorandums and other recently unearthed evidence documenting internal deliberations. It…


The Tyranny Of Decorum: Key Sanders Adviser David Sirota Looks To A Fatal Flaw In The Campaign & Democratic Party

By David Sirota TMI (4/15/20) Note: I’ve known Bernie Sanders for 21 years. He’s been a hero for me. I deeply respect his life’s work and he remains an inspiration to me — and no amount of post-election gossip, punditry or backbiting will change that. Working on his campaign was a great honor, and I’ve thanked him and so many others for that experience. What follows are some frank takeaways from the campaign. We did not run a perfect race — and having worked on both winning and losing campaigns, I accept my share of responsibility for that. Lord knows I was…


Want To Understand What Is Going On In America Right Now? Then Understand The ‘Shock Doctrine’

Intercepted: Mehdi Hasan & Naomi Klein Review Mounting Cost Of  Pro-Corporate Coronavirus ‘Shock Doctrine’ Capitalism Intercepted (4/7/20) The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan speaks with Senior Correspondent Naomi Klein about coronavirus capitalism and the selective use of emergency measures to offload risks onto workers and families, while the people who are relatively more secure get no-strings-attached bailouts. Link To 33-Minute Video (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L.Taylor, 2020. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org ) ***** The ‘Shock Doctrine’ Documentary By Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine is Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein’s companion piece to…


GRIFTERS: A Company Promised Cheap Ventilators To Americans, Never Delivered & Now Charging Quadruple For New Ones

“Don’t get me wrong, I am happy they are getting ventilators. If you could buy four times as many for the price, why wouldn’t you do that?” By Patricia Callahan & Sebastian Rotella ProPublica (4/8/20) The Dutch company that received millions of taxpayer dollars to develop an affordable ventilator for pandemics, but never delivered them, has struck a much more lucrative deal with the federal government to make 43,000 ventilators at four times the price. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to pay Royal Philips N.V. $646.7 million for the new ventilators — paying more…


The Democratic Party Better Harness The Legitimate Rage Of Americans. Otherwise, The Right Will Use It With Horrifying Results

If the Democrats refuse to harness the legitimate rage of Americans and direct it at those responsible for our predicament, the right will make this anger its own and will win. By Jon Schwarz The Intercept (4/5/20) THE POLITICAL POSSIBILITIES of this moment are different than anything we have ever experienced. We possess a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the United States a more humane country. But if we fail to seize it, we will face mortal danger from the right. That’s not hyperbole. The anger of Americans, once they figure out what’s being done to them right now,…


American Capitalism Has Dropped Its Mask — And Its Face Is Cold, Cruel & Selfish

The shortage of supplies is directly the result of a capitalist system so unregulated that it is designed to benefit only shareholders, not societies. By Sonali Kolhatkar Independent Media Institute (4/6/20) Among the countless distressing news stories covering the COVID-19 pandemic over the past month are the heartwarming ones that focus on what ordinary human beings are doing to help one another during this historic crisis. Many of these “good news” reports have focused on a nation-wide effort by fashion industry labels, domestic apparel manufacturers, and amateur seamstresses to mass-produce the much-needed masks that are in short supply. But what most of the stories…


Covid-19 May Be Just The Beginning: As Ice Melts & Mosquitoes Wander Northward, Dangerous Diseases From The Past Could Rise Again

“I have no words to express my feelings.” By Mary Pappenfuss HuffPost (5/5/17) The great thing about climate change is that there’s always some new, horrifying consequence to worry about ― like ancient viruses and bacteria emerging from the ice as the Earth warms. Unfortunately, researchers fear we may see more of this in the future. Some of these viruses and bacteria may have been trapped for millennia, and it’s not even totally clear yet what they are, let alone what kind of damage they might cause. Researchers have encountered complex “giant viruses” with as many as thousands of genes…


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Even In A Pandemic, Andrew Cuomo Is Not Your Friend. (ESPECIALLY In A Pandemic)

Even in a pandemic, Cuomo is fighting to protect the rich and impose austerity, including devastating Medicaid cuts, on everyone else. [Editor’s Note: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been getting a lot of press for his calm, forceful press conferences. But there is another side to Coumo, a side that has contributed to the health emergency in his state and will make things even worse. Sorry to say, but Cuomo is just another Wall Street stroking neoliberal Democan; part of the problem, not the solution. — Mark L. Taylor] By Akash Mehta Jacobin (3/27/20) Andrew Cuomo’s daily press conferences…


Dead Zone: Malcom Gladwell Writes Of The 1918 Flu Pandemic, The Deadliest Virus Ever Known

The Spanish-flu epidemic of 1918 reached virtually every country, killing so many people so quickly that some cities were forced to convert streetcars into hearses. [Editor’s Note: This is one of those time in life where — unlike the occupant of the White House — you really want to know your history. — Mark L. Taylor] The New Yorker (3/19/20) In 1997, author Malcolm Gladwell published “The Dead Zone,” a gripping piece about the catastrophic spread of the so-called Spanish flu, in 1918. In the fall of that year, a devastating strain of influenza emerged, overwhelming entire cities and towns…


The Kind Of Capitalism That Has Infected The US Is The Most Evil On Earth

“It’s cheaper to dig mass graves than field hospitals. The kind of capitalism that has infected the US is the most evil on earth. If it is not profitable to save lives,it simply will not get done. Lot of good this multi-trillion dollar war machine is doing us now, huh? We could have spent all that on healthcare, infrastructure, and community resilience. Nope, but we’ve got enough artillery to kill the world 20 times over. The government is not going to help us, not now, not tomorrow, not after this. They’re going to save their own asses, and their rich…


California Created A Massive Medical Reserve – With Ventilators, Acute Care Beds & N95 Masks — Then Let It All Collapse

Mobile field hospitals are designed to be deployed during large-scale emergencies and natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and pandemics. CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons The false economy of government cutbacks & austerity. By Lance Williams, Will Evans & Will Carless Reveal / Center For Investigative Reporting (3/27/20) They were ready to roll whenever disaster struck California: three 200-bed mobile hospitals that could be deployed to the scene of a crisis on flatbed trucks and provide advanced medical care to the injured and sick within 72 hours. Each hospital would be the size of a football field, with a surgery ward, intensive care unit and…


Trump Sends Cease, Desist Letter On Ad Featuring One Giant Sound Bite Of HIS Mad Trumpandemic Musings

So, of course you just gotta’ see the ad, right? By Kerry Eleved Daily Kos (3/25/20) Donald Trump is angry. The Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA assembled an ad that features the sound bites of Trump and Trump only, and guess what? Turns out he’s an unhinged maniacal liar who’s gotten everything about the coronavirus wrong. That may not be news to you, but it is apparently news to Trump. And his dangerously factless musings on the coronavirus over the past several weeks have not worn well. So on Wednesday, a Trump campaign attorney released a cease and desist letter demanding that TV stations across the nation pull…


Some Of The Most Egregious Political Lies Of The Twenty-First Century

“By any rational standard, Trump’s comments qualify as either some of the most egregious political lies of the twenty-first century or as yet another indication that he suffers from a personality disorder that allows him to dissociate from reality and disclaim responsibility for any of his actions. Instead, he blames others for any harm to the public, shocks to the stock market, or damage to the wider economy.” — Bill Blum, Unequal Justice: Where Are Impeachment and the 25th Amendment When We Need Them? (Cartoon by Seth L. Taylor, 2020) ***** Trump Decimated After Admitting Keeping Country Closed Is ‘Detrimental to My Election…


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Nobel Laureate Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Trump’s “Trickle-Down” Economic Plans Are Not Enough To Meet Dire Challenge Of Coronavirus Crisis

Democracy Now! (3/19/20) The coronavirus relief package signed by President Trump Wednesday provides unemployment benefits and free coronavirus testing to millions of Americans suddenly out of a job, but guarantees paid sick leave to less than 20% of American workers. Earlier this month, Trump signed into law an $8 billion coronavirus response package and has laid out the first details of a third, $1 trillion economic package and invoked the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to allow the government to direct industrial production. For more on those bailouts and who benefits, we speak with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Columbia…


Toilet Paper Teaches You All You Need To Know About Economics & The Political Parties

    Capitalism: You have a case of toilet paper. You loan one roll to someone in exchange for regularly receiving more rolls from them. Vulture Capitalism: You buy up the world’s supply of toilet paper, and sell off the individual pieces at a steep markup. Free-market Capitalism: You have a roll of toilet paper, which you are free to use as you wish… or you could sell it, if you want to eat. You have total freedom of choice in the matter. Late Stage Capitalism: You have one roll of toilet paper. Some people have none. I have warehouses…


Corporate Dems Claim Biden’s Obvious ‘cognitive decline’ Is Just A Silly Russian Conspiracy Theory

But not to worry, surely those nice Republicans would never, ever stoop to using such a disgraceful line of attack in a campaign! Right? The Rising / The Hill (4/9/20) Saagar discusses the Democratic establishment protecting Joe Biden against allegations of cognitive decline. Link To 10-Minute Video Think They Won’t Do It? Watch What The Republicans Have In Store For Biden & The Dems: Link To 15-Minute Video ***** And Surely, The Republicans Would Never Bring  Up Biden’s Serial Lying. Right? By Mehdi Hasan The Intercept (3/9/20) The evidence is in: Joe Biden has a habit of making things up….



BIDEN: Delaware’s Corrupt House Of Cards And The Senator From MBNA

How Joe Biden helped build a financial system that’s great for Delaware banks and terrible for the rest of us. By Tim Murphy Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2019) In early 1973, as Joe Biden was settling into his new job in Washington, DC, Ralph Nader published a deconstruction of what made the freshman Democratic senator’s state of Delaware, the most anodyne of states, so exceptional. The answer, The Company State explained, had to do with the unique relationship between government and commerce: Delaware was less a democracy than a fiefdom, contorting its laws to meet the demands of its corporate lords. Preeminent among them…


If You Understand How Trump Defeated Clinton Four Years Ago, Do You Really Vote ‘Establishment Joe Biden’?

By Robert Reich robertreich.org (3/4/20) As the Democratic Party’s “moderate” (or shall we say “establishment”) wing coalesces around Joe Biden to stop Bernie, the primary contest is starting to look a lot like 2016, when the same wing rallied around Hillary Clinton. Today, Mike Bloomberg quit the race and endorsed Biden—as has Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. As the New York Times’ David Leonhardt put it, “if you’re a Democrat who doesn’t want Bernie Sanders to be the party’s nominee, your choice is now clear: you should vote for Joe Biden.” But suppose you’re a Democrat who doesn’t want Donald Trump to…


It’s Groundhog Day (Again) For Democrats

How do you ever win by making unilateral concessions? It’s Negotiation 101, people. Never compromise with yourself. By Mike McCabe Wisconsin Our Revolution (3/4/20) Democrats are awfully hard to figure. I hear what they say they believe in and what they say they want to do. But when in power they rarely if ever do those things. Theirs is a scared party, an apologetic party, a play-it-safe party. When is the last time you heard a Republican apologize for anything? Some years back, establishment Democrats got spooked by the L word. They’ve been going to great lengths ever since to shed…


DuPont vs. The World: Chemical Giant Covered Up Health Risks Of Teflon Contamination Around The Globe

Democracy Now! (1/23/18) Broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival, we are joined by three guests who personally battled with DuPont and are featured in the new documentary called “The Devil We Know,” that looks at how former DuPont employees, residents and lawyers took on the chemical giant to expose the danger of the chemical C8, found in Teflon and countless household products—from stain- and water-resistant apparel to microwave popcorn bags to dental floss. The chemical has now been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers. We speak with Bucky Bailey, whose mother worked in the Teflon division of…


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How Democrats Got Lucky With Trump

“I know it doesn’t feel like it, but Democrats got lucky with Trump. They got lucky that he’s too short-sighted to take an incremental loss to solidify long term gains. Nothing demonstrates Trump’s incompetence as a manager like his deference to Paul Ryan and the staffing of his administration with the same old establishment Republican tools. Liberals lacking imagination believe it couldn’t possibly be worse than Trump. They’re fooling themselves. “FDR famously wrote during the Great Depression that in order to save the republic it was necessary to be ‘fairly radical for a generation.’ His New Deal legislation delivered on…


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In-Depth Vox Interview With Bernie Sanders

While this Vox interview is from 2015, it is still relevant to understanding Bernie Sanders and the goals and values of Democratic Socialism. Watch this and understand why the corporate powers in both parties are aligning against Bernie. — Mark L. Taylor Vox (7/28/15) In a wide-ranging discussion, Bernie Sanders discusses his views on socialism, single payer, open borders, Zionism, and more with Vox Editor-in-chief Ezra Klein. Table of contents below: 0:00 – Socialism 3:20 – Universal health care 5:50 – Global poverty & open borders 9:29 – Unions 11:31 – Grassroots organizing 16:04 – Race 17:56 – Oligarchy and campaign…


How Right Wing Dark Money Played A Pivotal Role In Trump’s 2016 Wisconsin Win

A confidential report claims that secretive groups targeting independent voters helped tip the balance for Trump in 2016. By Lisa Graves The Progressive (3/2/20) Two groups from outside of Wisconsin may have been responsible for President Donald Trump’s narrow win in the state in 2016, according to a recently obtained “confidential” report. Between October 29 and November 7, 2016, sister groups Independent Women’s Voice and Independent Women’s Forum, two nonprofits based in Washington, D.C., launched a campaign to target registered independents and Republican-leaning women in Wisconsin. These efforts moved independent voters in the state by 16 percentage points toward Trump, says…


Complete Collapse Of The Existing Institutions Of A Civil Society

[Editor’s Note: German historian and journalist Volker Ullrich’s amazing 2016 biography of Adolf Hitler is`a stunning account of the rise of Nazism in 1930’s Wiemar Germany, which exposes extremely disturbing parallels to what is happening in the United States now with Trump and the complete transformation of the Republican party into cultism. The Commoner Call will be running short excerpts from the book that have particular resonance to today’s political climate. It is essential to grasp the true, dark nature of the transformation we are seeing in our political climate. — Mark L. Taylor] ***** “It was astonishing not just…


American Fuhrer: Delusionary, Dictatorial Donald Trump Is Drunk On Power

What is most troubling are the silences of the countervailing forces that Americans have a right to rely on to fight Trump the tyrant. By Ralph Nader Common Dreams (2/29/20) Delusionary, dictatorial Donald Trump is drunk on power. Trump’s monarchical and lawless actions are a clear and present subversion of our Republic and its Constitution. As soon as the impeachment trial ended and Trump was acquitted by the Senate’s supine Republican courtiers (except for Senator Mitt Romney), vengeance flooded Trump’s fevered mind. Ignoring warnings from his advisors, Trump is lashing out in all directions, unleashing torrents of foul-mouthed tweets. Note…


When Socialism Was Tried In America — And Was A Smashing Success

For much of the 20th century, Milwaukee was run by socialists—and Time magazine called it “one of the best-run cities in the U.S.” By John Nichols The Nation (4/2/19) If I owned all the real estate in the world, I wouldn’t feel so powerful as I do on the streets of this socialist city,” declared former New York City councilman Baruch Vladeck when he arrived in Milwaukee in 1932 for the Socialist Party’s national convention in that city. Norman Thomas, the famed civil-rights and economic-justice campaigner who became the party’s presidential nominee that year, celebrated the fact that he was chosen for that honor…


The New York Times’ First Article In 1922 On Hitler’s Rise Should Be A Lesson For Today’ Media

  [Editor’s Note: As we have often seen, the American media has been unprepared to deal with the crass cruelty and danger of the Trump administration. By repeatedly pulling punches and using euphemisms like “misstatement” to describe Trump’s “lies” they have too often padded the sharp edges of Trumps reality. This excellent story shows how such journalistic timidity puts all of us at risk. — Mark L. Taylor] By Zack Beauchamp Vox (3/3/16) On November 21, 1922, the New York Times published its very first article about Adolf Hitler. It’s an incredible read — especially its assertion that “Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not…


The History Of American Political & Social Reform Has Always Begun By People Speaking Out

Americans change politics first by changing minds. By Heather Cox Richardson Letters From An American (2/22/20) A lot of folks have been asking me lately if America has ever been in such a crisis before and, if so, what people in the past did to save democracy. The answer to the first question is yes, it has, three times, although only once was this bad. In the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1920s, oligarchs took over the nation’s government, controlling the White House, Congress, and the courts. In the 1850s, elite southern slaveholders took over the Democratic Party and insisted…


Historian Timothy Snyder Evaluates Whether Or Not The U.S. Is Sliding Towards Tyranny

  Amanpour & Company (2/18/20) President Trump has just announced the sentence commutation of former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich, a move that arrives just days after the DOJ overruled a harsher prison sentence for Roger Stone. Given the increased White House involvement in judicial matters, Yale University’s Timothy Snyder, a historian and author who has devoted much of his career to understanding the rise of tyranny in different parts of the world, sits down with Ana Cabrera to discuss his concerns about a worrying trend taking root in the U.S. Link To 20-Minute Video


Malcolm X’s Daughter Ilyasah Shabazz On Her Father’s Legacy & The New Series “Who Killed Malcolm X?”

  Democracy Now! (2/21/20) Fifty-five years ago today, Malcolm X was assassinated. The civil rights leader was shot to death on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. He was only 39 years old. Details of his assassination remain disputed to this day. Earlier this month, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said he was considering reopening the investigation, just days after a new documentary series about the assassination was released on Netflix called “Who Killed Malcolm X?” It makes the case that two of the three men who were convicted for Malcolm X’s murder are actually…


Martin Luther King Jr’s (Democratic Socialist) Dream

  Featuring audio clips and quotes from King that will not be featured & celebrated on the evening news or taught in schools. By Michael Moore Rumble (2/20/20) Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy has been sanitized by mainstream American society, erasing his fierce anti-capitalist and anti-war advocacy. Before he was assassinated, King was forcefully denouncing the “three evils” in America — racism, militarism and a corrupt economic system — and arguing that these three evils were all tied together. For this MLK Day episode, Michael Moore shares audio clips and quotes from King that will not be celebrated on the…