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The Death of Democracy in America
Matt Hoh, speaking truth, and we can’t have that in America. Or can we? W.J. Astore If the Republican and Democratic Parties are virtually identical on most issues involving big money, like the...
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Packing Heat in America
A police officer reacts to the Highland Park mass shooting near Chicago on July 4th (Getty images) W.J. Astore Another mass shooting in America, this one during a July 4th parade, killing six and...
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Democrats, Republicans, and the Need for Alternatives
W.J. Astore The last real Democratic President was Jimmy Carter. The last U.S. election offering a real alternative vision was George McGovern versus Richard Nixon in 1972. Since then, Democratic...
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The Power Game
W.J. Astore A book that shook my world was journalist Hedrick Smith’s “The Power Game,” published 35 years ago in 1987. It was about “How Washington really works,” and what I remember about it is how...
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The Giant War Robot that Rules America
Not exactly the “Great Society” envisioned by LBJ in the 1960s. How long before war becomes both programmed and automated into our society as an unstoppable force? W.J. Astore Readers, I admit to you...
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Trump and the January 6th Hearings
W.J. Astore The other day, a friend asked if I was watching the January 6th hearings about Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol riot. I had to admit I wasn’t. I’m really not interested in what Trump did...
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Destroying the Village in Vietnam
It seems the Vietnam War may as well be the Punic Wars for most Americans, i.e. ancient history. Yet it was a scant 50 years ago that America finally pulled out of that disastrous war, leaving a...
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American Exceptionalism
W.J. Astore Two images of American exceptionalism to mull over today. The first shows how exceptional the U.S. is with its military spending: Of course, U.S. military spending is projected to rise in...
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The Nasty Voices in Our Heads
There’s way too much fear mongering in America, which helps to drive the paranoid nature of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. This is the subject of my latest article at TomDispatch.com, which I’ve...
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Of Products and Assets and Families
W.J. Astore When I was a college professor, whether civilian or military, I was told unironically that I was part of a “family.” I had an Air Force “family.” I had a Penn College “family.” But when...
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Let Reagan Be Reagan
W.J. Astore The first presidential election in which I voted was 1984 and Ronald Reagan got my nod. Back then, I was a Cold War officer-to-be and I wasn’t convinced that Walter Mondale and the...
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