You would probably call me a conspiracy theorist. I’m not sure what you would mean, but from observing how others use the term, conspiracy theory usually means not believing what governments and corporate media say. I fall into that category, a failing that leads some to call me mentally defective.

Every few weeks I see articles by highly educated authors, calling people like me crazy. …

You may be privileged

If animals and plants

Give you their bodies

Each day, to feed your body.

.

If no one’s waiting outside your door to eat you

If you even have a door.

If no one’s slithering into your burrow

To snatch your children

.

You may be privileged

If your cells have enough clean water

To swim in, be nourished by, excrete

Into and not be poisoned.

.

If your first thought before moving

Is not, ‘How much will this hurt?’ or

‘Will I fall?’ or ‘Can I afford this?’ or

‘Is this safe?’ count yourself blessed.

…

Celebrity stockbroker and failed Senate candidate Peter Schiff (net worth $70 million) said, “The government can’t create jobs; they’ll destroy jobs trying to do it. We need free markets to create jobs; if the government wants to help, they should reduce their burden on the economy.”

Rich people never tire of preaching the importance of free markets. Extreme free market ideology is called neoliberalism and dominates economics in the United States today. Most politicians of both major parties, no matter how conservative on social issues, are neoliberals when it comes to protecting the power of corporations from government restrictions.

Neoliberals…

I’m not one of those saints

You see walking around beaming

Giving thanks, radiating peace.

But sometimes a feeling comes

Beyond gratitude. Blown away.

Overwhelmed by the bounty I’ve been given.

Sometimes my life is like

Being treated to a global feast.

Sushi and salad, meats and breads

Fruits and vegetables, drinks and desserts

Samosas, noodles, soups from five countries

More than I ever dreamed.

Where did this come from? What did I

Do to deserve it?

Then if I’m lucky, I stop thinking

Stop wondering and give myself over

To tasting the feast, listening to the musicians

In a…

With Texans freezing and hungry in winter storm Uri, Colorado City, TX Mayor Tim Boyd took to Facebook to tell his constituents, “Fend for yourselves. Only the strong will survive and the weak will perish. The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout.”

Spoken like a true Republican, but Mayor Boyd was only giving voice to the cruelty that has run through America’s veins and brains since the British first settled here. Many Americans consider hard-heartedness a virtue. …

As U.S. companies send production to lower-wage countries, American workers have become poorer, less organized, and less secure. Only 10.3% of US workers belong to unions, compared to about 30% in the 1950s. Fewer organized workers has meant lower wages, more poverty, and a meaner, more stressful society for everyone.

Unions mostly collapsed because large factories disappeared. Without large workplaces in which workers can associate, and without the power to shut down production with strikes, labor has a much harder time organizing. We are all living harsher lives as a result.

Now in Bessemer, Alabama, over 5,000 mostly Black workers…

A 74-year-old reality TV star ex-President is apparently the most dangerous man in America. Nothing is more important than keeping Donald Trump out of politics and off Twitter and surveilling or jailing his extremist supporters.

At least, liberals and Democrats seem to feel that way. Mr. Trump has millions of followers who strongly disagree. They see him as someone who stood up for regular people like them, who resisted the ongoing de-industrialization of America, who wanted them to be Great Again.

I live in San Francisco and am a lifelong radical, so most of my friends are in the “Trump…

Conservatives believe the United States is a capitalist country, and they like it that way. They say government should stay out of people’s business, so free markets can create the best possible society. Anyone who advocates that government do more is labeled a socialist, a communist, or worse.

When we try to find such a free market, though, we see that capitalism in the U.S. does not mean free markets at all. It means government and markets run by people with capital, meaning big money and other financial assets, dedicated to making themselves richer.

We do have markets, but they…