Jim Caton lives in Southeast Michigan where he teaches English and works as a freelance writer. A graduate of Wayne Law School, he writes on matters of constitutional law, public policy and international affairs. He is currently at work on a book of economic and social criticism entitled Ass Backward.
Now things are different. They are worse. More people are out of work, more middle income families are closer to living in poverty than they ever imagined they could be, wages have not only stagnated but decreased in real terms while profits for the large banks and corporations have soared, and the world’s wealth has
The world’s elite—the billionaires and CEO’s and the heads of state who serve them—are gathering this week for the World Economic Forum, their annual working holiday in Davos, Switzerland. Among this year’s attendees are Bill Gates, General Motors Chairwoman and CEO Mary Barra, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Benjamin Netanyahu, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and 2,500
It is no surprise that the federal government is a participant in the Flint, Michigan, water debacle. After the close support the administration of President Barack Obama provided the state’s government throughout the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings, the allegiance of the feds to the monied interests of Michigan at the expense of its residents is clear.
Demand is down. Prices are down. Wages are down. The markets are down. And money, that half-fictitious substance, is largely to be found in the parasitical financial markets in the form of debt. These are ominous signs. In a fact-filled article published on the World Socialist Website (WSWS), journalist Barry Grey lays out in plain
Flint is the future. The catastrophic human damage inflicted on the impoverished Michigan city is the result of forces and decisions that we will see replicated in urban areas throughout the country. Thousands of children exposed to irreversible lead poisoning. Ten residents whose deaths from Legionnaire’s disease are almost certainly attributable to the toxic water
The net is tightening. Fifteen years in the making, the net woven of unconstitutional laws, intelligence agencies, surveillance technology, secret prisons where torture takes place, propaganda aimed at frightening the people with external and internal enemies, a militarized police force—the net known as totalitarianism—is closing. Federal officials with the Department of Homeland Security have announced
Last week the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lost another tooth, and the pharmaceutical industry won another battle in its ongoing effort to roll back safety regulations that impinge on its profit margin. The regulatory agency capitulated to drug company Pacira Pharmaceuticals’ demand that it revoke restrictions it had placed on Pacira’s marketing of
Over a period of three days, from December 12 to December 14, military forces of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari slaughtered hundreds of, perhaps more than a thousand, Shia Muslims at three sites in Nigeria’s Kaduna State. According to a report on the World Socialist Web Site, witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed
When I was a kid, we Americans lived in the shadow of the Vietnam War. Sometimes it was just “the war,” although that term has generally been reserved for World War II. But “Vietnam” was synonymous with “war,” and in our minds it anchored all war to that one country in Southeast Asia. Complication crept
There comes to all of us a night when we do not sleep. We lie awake looking at the ceiling and feel ourselves aging. Maybe we found a gray hair that day, or maybe someone younger reminded us of ourselves. But on that night we lie there stunned in the revelation that our bodies are