IMPORTANT READS

BUSINESS OR FUNNY BUSINESS-Late last summer, after churning along through the pandemic with only a two-week pause, managers at FreightCar America called hundreds of workers into the break area at the company’s factory near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to tell them that the plant was closing for good. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-The news does not get much worse than a recent scientific report that the planet is trapping twice as much heat as it did only 14 years ago.  

IMMIGRATION POLITICS-Immigration has always been a hot button issue in America, and our generation is no different. Most recently, controls on immigration have been portrayed as racist and repressive by the open-borders Left and too expansive by the increasingly nativist Right. 

The "For the People Act" has been a central legislative priority for the Democratic party, and especially its progressive wing, ever since its introduction, and passage, in 2019.

Trump may be out of office, but American politics seem more crisis laden than ever between the caretaker neoliberalism of the Democrats and the creeping totalitarianism of the Republicans.

COLLEGE SPORTS-In a 9-0 vote this week, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory to college athletes over a compensation battle that has been dragging on for years.

WORLD WATCH-Every Israeli will sooner than later realize that the creation of a Palestinian state is the only way by which Israel can protect its democracy, independence, national security, and national Jewish identity.

OTHER WORDS-The American political system is complicated but fixing it doesn’t have to be.  

COMMON DREAMS-As the mom of two children with Type 1 diabetes, I constantly worry:

COMMON DREAMS-The ACLU reacted with outrage -- and warned of potentially major implications for the right to protest -- after a Trump-appointed federal judge on Monday largely dismissed lawsuits accusing the former president and his attorney general of illegally authorizing a violent assault on peaceful demonstrators in the nation's capital last year."  

COUNTER PUNCH-United States political culture is an Orwellian nightmare. Two plus two equals five in the propaganda spectacle that passes for “democratic” news and debate here.  

PEACE VOICE-Did you really think that electing Joe Biden would mean major reductions in military spending and the shift of Pentagon resources to spending on social well-being, as progressives have long advocated? 

GUEST COMMENTARY-China’s increasingly aggressive geopolitical and economic stance in the world is unleashing a fierce bipartisan backlash in America.

COUNTERPUNCH - Years pass, and journalist Julian Assange languishes in a British jail. His crime? Truthful reporting of U.S. military atrocities in Iraq, reporting that sparked a lust for vengeance among U.S. politicos and military men.

How strong and powerful is a country if it cannot handle the slightest bit of self-reflection or self-criticism?

CAPITAL & MAIN-A powerful tidal wave is building, feeding off the primal desire to reclaim a lost sense of normalcy.

BIG TECH TALK - “Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) during her failed presidential run in 2019.

CAL MATTERS-If Billy McCasland had gotten his $1,200 stimulus check, he would have moved his family out of the Modesto house the pediatrician says is responsible for his 7-year-old’s lead poisoning.

NEW GEOGRAPHY-The coronavirus pandemic has altered the future of American business.

COMMON DREAMS-The atmospheric scientist that led a major year-long Arctic research expedition said Tuesday that the world may have already hit one of the so-called climate “tipping points." 

OTHER WORDS-McDonald’s workers in 15 U.S. cities recently staged a weeklong strike demanding a $15 hourly wage for every McDonald’s worker. McDonald’s resisted, pledging only to raise average wages to $13 an hour.