Politics & Globalization
International trade agreements force the U.S. and other participting countries to "harmonize" food and envrironmental safety standards to the lowest common denominator. Often these agreements are negotiated behind closed doors, shutting out Congress and the public, while granting corporations and trade associations a seat at the table. It's no surprise that these agreements give transnational corporations "special rights", allowing companies to challenge individual countries' environmental, worker and food safety laws and regulations.
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Rose and Ronnie· Joe volunteer© 2008
If Donald Trump ever does leave the White House, we can in large part thank paper ballots. Trump’s desperate assault on 2020’s popular vote has drawn justifiable contempt. But had this election predominantly been conducted on the computerized touchscreen machines that have dominated our electoral process since Florida in 2000, Trump could well be headed for a stolen second term.
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President-elect Joe Biden started his Cabinet rollout strong. He received high marks from all corners of the party for his economic team and seemed to be pursuing a “Goldilocks” strategy of choosing nominees that were acceptable to a wide swath of his coalition. He consulted key people, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), ensuring a smooth reception.
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I’m one of those “farmers and ranchers for a Green New Deal,” and like a lot of them, my involvement started with soil. I began market gardening in 1994, five years before my wife and I purchased the old tobacco farm where we’ve been doing organic farming ever since.
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Relief grants meant to buoy small businesses at the onset of the pandemic were largely absorbed by some of the nation’s biggest franchises, The Counter found in an analysis of new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) data released by the Small Business Administration (SBA) last week. The Counter also found multiple instances where conglomerates appeared to bypass the $10 million cap on loans through the use of subsidiaries.
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With just one cabinet appointment, President-elect Joe Biden could tackle economic inequality, the rural/urban divide, climate change, the growing mistrust of science, systemic racism and even the coronavirus.
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The notion of a conflict between science and spirituality runs deep in Western thought. Perhaps the deeper reality is that science – or more accurately the system of values and assumptions associated with corporate-funded applied science and technology – is in fact attacking spirituality, holistic health, environmental awareness, and any other regimes of thought that might purport to challenge its claim on ultimate authority.
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The world’s major military powers exercise their dominance largely because of their massive weapons arsenals, including sophisticated fighter planes, drones, ballistic missiles, warships, battle tanks, heavy artillery—and nuclear weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
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"I say to the Walton family: Get off welfare," declared Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to the government study he commissioned. "Pay your workers a living wage—at least $15 an hour."
Pinpointing a reality denounced as "morally obscene" by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a new government study shows how some of the nation's largest and most
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We Are the Majority
"They've given us a mandate for action on covid, the economy, on climate change, on systemic racism." - President-Elect Joe Biden
President-elect Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump with the highest youth turnout ever. Now, Joe Biden must assemble a powerful governing team to stop the climate crisis, create millions of good-paying jobs, address systemic racism, and control the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Progressives within agriculture are mounting an aggressive push to keep former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp from being selected to serve as Agriculture Secretary in a Biden administration. The tension is emerging right as Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) has begun publicly gunning for the top job at USDA, a sprawling $150 billion department that feeds millions of low-income households, oversees agriculture policy and supports the farm economy.
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