Monday, December 30, 2024

A Corporate Apostate

Not only did Mark Bertolini, corporate chief of the health insurance giant Aetna, increase the company's lowest wage to $16 an hour and improve health benefits, he publicly revealed that these increases aren’t as financially painful as other corporate conglomerates claim.

Was Jeffrey Sterling Trial a Government Effort to Divide Investigative Journalists and Whistleblowers?

Former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, faces a maximum possible sentence of decades in prison for leaking classified information about a secret operation in Iran. Norman Solomon talks about the need to support investigative journalists and whistleblowers and not let government wedge a gap.

When You’ve Lost Bernie Sanders: How Netanyahu Destroyed the Israel Lobby

Sen. Bernie Sanders will not attend the March 3 speech from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Congress. Is his announcement a turning point in the domestic politics of Mideast policy?

Aetna Lifts the National Standard for ‘Competitive Wages’

One rare CEO is increasing up to one-third of his employees' pay as well as adjusting its company health plan so lower-income workers can get the same health coverage. Aetna set a new national standard for competitive wages.

Exclusive: Freed CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Says 'I Would Do It All Again' to...

John Kiriakou, a retired CIA agent, was recently released from prison after blowing the whistle on the George W. Bush administration’s torture program. He talks exclusively to Democracy Now! without regrets.

Back to the Nineteenth Century

The argument that the growth of on-demand jobs are less predictable and secure for workers is similar to the “freedom of contract” argument, which took place in the late nineteenth century. Are we heading back in time?

The Terror We Give Is the Terror We Get

Is the barbarism we condemn the barbarism we commit? Chris Hedges discusses the line that separates the U.S. from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and how terror has become the engine of war.

On Gas Tax Increase, Obama is Wrong—and (Some) Republicans are Right

People on the right, as well as many on the left, are urging the President to consider an increase in the federal gasoline tax to maintain America's transportation infrastructure and reduce greenhouse gases. Could a "bipartisan" approach be of value to this country?

CIA Mission: Destroy the Whistleblower and Perfume the Stench of ‘Operation Merlin’

Does more secrecy breed more impunity? The Jeffrey Sterling case brought to the surface more serious questions about Operation Merlin and indicates that the CIA program was more "shoddy and irresponsible" than Risen’s book reported.

New Evidence that Half of America is Broke

Half of America is barely surviving and new data strengthens the case. Yet, people's views are distorted by growing financial wealth. As half of our nation is in poverty, where is that booming economy everyone's talking about?