Is neoliberal austerity and rampant inefficient military spending the future of Western Europe, as their establishment powers reduce social spending, and ramp up defense and surveillance spending? That’s up to the European people, and so far, they’ve chosen austerity…
Those who grasp elementary economics enough to know that tax increases could “solve” the debt ceiling issue become complicit in the deception by invoking “realism.” Since the two major parties are jointly subservient to corporations and the rich, they rule out tax increases on them. It thus becomes “realistic” to exclude that option from the debt ceiling debate. What is best for corporations and the rich thus gets equated to what is “realistic.” It is worth remembering that throughout history ruling classes have discovered, to their shock and surprise, that the ruled can and often do quickly alter what is “realistic.”
Wolfgang Streeck: French aspirations to ‘strategic autonomy’ for ‘Europe’ (and ‘strategic sovereignty’ for France) stand a chance only in a multipolar world populated by a good number of politically significant non-aligned countries, quite similar to what the Chinese seem to want. To what extent this implies some kind of equidistance to the United States and China is a question left open, probably deliberately, by Emmanuel Macron. Sometimes he seems to want equidistance, sometimes he denies that he wants it. In any case, this prospect is anathematized by German pro-Western militants, above all by the Greens who now control German foreign policy. Among them, suspicions run deep of Macron’s occasional protestations that ‘strategic autonomy’ is compatible with transatlantic loyalty, at a time of growing confrontation between ‘the West’ and the new East Asian Evil Empire. As a result, France is more isolated than ever in the EU.
“We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “But we must pick up the pace.”
The Greens and Die Linke were not decisive enough for Jan Genin – especially when it came to climate protection. Now he wants Mera 25 to enter the Bremen Parliament.
Over recent decades, the U.S. empire peaked and began its decline. It thus follows every other empire’s (Greek, Roman, Persian, and British) classic pattern of birth, evolution, decline, and death. The U.S. empire emerged from and replaced the British Empire over the last century and especially after World War II. Earlier, in 1776 and again in 1812, the British Empire tried and failed militarily to prevent or stop an independent U.S. capitalism from developing. After those failures, Britain took a different path in its relations with the U.S. After many more wars in its colonies and with competing colonialisms across the 19th and 20th centuries, Britain’s empire is now gone.
But if you call 911 for an ambulance, you could face a huge bill, even for a short ride. Ambulances typically don’t operate as a free public service. In many states the average balance due runs over $1,000.
Having health insurance does help, but deductibles and exclusions can still leave you with a huge bill. A medical emergency that requires an ambulance can easily drive you into debt.
“What does the fact that a corporation can sue a media organization over critical coverage, allege financial damage, and gain access to a journalist’s private texts say about a society that claims to value a free press?” by Anya Parampil
The arrest warrant for Putin is based on poorly manufactured lies. The Gray Zone’s investigative reporting provides a look inside one of these camps, and the background on the how such a cheap lie was spread in U.S. media
Bernie Sanders’ opening remarks at the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s hearing titled, “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks.”