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Progressive Media Outlets—Including This One—Decry Facebook’s Plan to Act as Gatekeeper of “Trustworthy” News

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke to developers at the tech giant’s annual conference on Tuesday about his plan to give certain “broadly trusted” news sources priority in users’ news feeds. (Image credit: Flickr/Anthony Quintano)

By Julia Conley | Common Dreams

Progressive and independent journalists are raising grave concerns this week about Facebook’s plan to fashion itself as an arbiter of what news outlets should be deemed “trustworthy”—arguing that the social media giant’s new proposal will punish non-corporate news sources and journalists offering left-leaning news analysis that it finds to be “polarizing.”

Richard Kim, executive editor of The Nation magazine, was among those reacting critically to the social media giant’s announcement on Monday:

In his keynote speech at Facebook’s annual developer conference on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the company has already begun surveying its two billion users about the news sources they recognize and rely on the most, to determine which media outlets are “broadly trusted.” The results of the data-gathering will determine how widely news outlets are featured on user’s news feeds.

“We put [that data] into the system, and it is acting as a boost or a suppression, and we’re going to dial up the intensity of that over time,” Zuckerberg told media executives after the speech. “We feel like we have a responsibility to further [break] down polarization and find common ground.”

The CEO’s meeting with the media included representatives from some of the largest news organizations in the country, including the New York TimesBuzzFeedAtlantic MediaCNN, and News Corp., according to the Huffington Post.

It also follows months of criticism of Facebook after the alleged spread of misinformation on the platform during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“It’s not useful if someone’s just kind of repeating the same thing and attempting to polarize or drive people to the extremes,” Zuckerberg explained to a crowd of developers regarding how the company has begun to decide which news sources are credible.

But while combating the spread of misinformation is a worthy cause, argued some critics, Zuckerberg—CEO of a powerful corporation and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals—should not use survey results to support his role as a self-styled “gatekeeper” of trustworthy and untrustworthy news sources.

As Julianne Tveten wrote at In These Times last fall, Facebook began flagging so-called “fake news” after the election, along with other major tech companies like Google, which pledged in April 2017 to “surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content” in its search engine results, as Facebook is now doing with its news feed.

“These adjustments, however, haven’t stifled propaganda. On the contrary, they may have stifled dissent,” Tveten wrote, noting that left-leaning news sources have seen their readership plummet since the companies implemented those changes.

Common Dreams is one non-profit and progressive news outlet that has seen

significant drops in traffic since Google and Facebook began changing algorithms and talking openly about their new attempts to control the kind of news content users see.According to internal data and Google Analytics, traffic to Common Dreams from Google searches fell by 34 percent after the powerful search giant unveiled its new search protocol in April 2017.

Monthly Visitors from Google, Compared to Historic Average, Before and After Google Search Protocol Change

Monthly Visitors from Google, Compared to Historic Average, Before and After Google Search Protocol Change

“There’s a lot we still don’t understand about how we’re being impacted by the kinds of changes these companies are making, but it’s very unsettling to see this kind of power wielded by corporate interests who seem so detached from the mission of sites like ours and the role in general that progressive media and independent journalism play in this society,” said Jon Queally, Common Dreams managing editor.

Other critics noted that while corporate outlets like MSNBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times will likely be proclaimed “broadly trusted” in Zuckerberg’s data-collection endeavor, these “established” news sources have a rich and dubious history of misleading and damaging reporting.

Facebook’s announcement comes as former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and the Heritage Foundation are both working with the company to investigate whether it has harbored liberal biases and advise Facebook on “the best way to work with [conservative] groups moving forward,” according to Axios.

While the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is also participating in an audit and working with Facebook to ensure that minority voices are represented on the platform, there was no indication that the impact on left-leaning independent media outlets was also being examined.

As ThinkProgress reported on Wednesday, “Facebook’s bias study, according to Facebook, will not include any liberals…Facebook did not answer questions fromThinkProgress about why liberals were excluded from the process or whether this incentivizes conservatives to continue to make false charges of bias.”

The tech giant’s decision to work hand-in-hand with right-wingers like Kyl, while failing to afford left-leaning sites a similar opportunity, exposes “how ill-equipped Facebook is to deal with modern conservatism,” wrote Libby Watson at Splinter News.

After Gizmodo reported in 2016 on the suppression of conservative media outlets like Breitbart News in Facebook’s “trending topics” feature, Watson wrote, the right latched on to the notion that the company was biased against right-wing reporting:

At Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony, Ted Cruz brought up the Gizmodo story and then proceeded to rattle off an insane laundry list of persecution fantasy grievances: They “shut down the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day page,” blocked “two dozen Catholic pages,” and, of course, banned [conservative video bloggers] Diamond and Silk. Imagine. The problem with this criticism is that there is a reason why Breitbart and Newsmax shouldn’t feature in any “news” section: They’re not trustworthy or legitimate news sources…

Facebook is still, two years later, struggling to counter baseless and hysterical whining about censorship from the right, to the extent that it’s now employing a conservative lobbyist to “investigate” claims of bias at the company.

“The conservative movement has done a remarkable job over the last half century to bellow and bully its way into having its most ridiculous and reality-divorced concerns taken seriously,” Watson continued. “It lies about and distorts everything: about tax cuts, about Benghazi and [Hillary Clinton’s] emails, about immigration, about healthcare, about Diamond and Silk. The further Facebook descends down the path of letting that screaming white face of faux outrage dictate how they run their platform, the harder it’s going to be for them to get away from them.”

Read more great articles at Common Dreams.




Watch: Election 2016 – Prediction Of Things To Come (Ron Paul Liberty Report)

Source: RonPaulLibertyReport

What will change and what won’t change after today’s vote? Foreign policy? Fed? Media? Congressional authority? Economy? Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams offer their take on what to expect after the “most important election in history.”

Dr. Paul says that there are some positive things on the horizon because people are waking up.




Eight Ways to Strengthen Our Democracy Beyond Voting

'Especially after the deeply toxic experience of 2016,' writes Collins, 'we all need to step up to protect our real democracy.' (Photo: bonsaimovie / flickr)

‘Especially after the deeply toxic experience of 2016,’ writes Collins, ‘we all need to step up to protect our real democracy.’ (Photo: bonsaimovie / flickr)

By Chuck Collins | Common Dreams

Throughout this trying election season, we’ve been told how much is at stake with our vote. But the success of any democracy depends on continuing to pay attention long after we cast our ballots.

So let’s pledge to strengthen our democracy with a few resolutions to focus our intentions and keep us moving forward over the next four years.

1. Change your media diet.

Way too much ink, airtime, and mental real estate has been consumed by the horserace reporting on elections — it’s all about who’s winning and losing. So unplug from the talk shows that interview pollsters and engage in partisan bickering all day. Find the commentators and independent media outlets that strengthen our civic life.

2. Turn off corporate media.

This election has been very profitable for big media corporations, but bad for our democracy. As CBS chairman Les Moonves remarked, “Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? The money’s rolling in and this is fun.”

Related Article:Just Turn It Off! Corporate Media Promoting Xenophobia & Fearmongering 24/7

Our differences have been compounded by media reports that amplify the loudest and most partisan utterances. Election coverage this year has encouraged us to view one another as cartoon caricatures, not neighbors.

3. Reject the consumer mentality in elections.

We’re encouraged to view national elections like consumers buying a car, but presidential elections can make most of us feel like spectators, not participants. Election Day is a small part of our real democracy — think of voting as a tiny fraction of your civic life.

4. Make your voice heard.

Pledge to communicate with your elected officials all year round, not just when they want your vote. Call, write, email, and attend community forums. When a politician hears from a dozen constituents with the same concern, it matters.

A few resolutions must address our polarized political atmosphere. The only way to break through this is by connecting with people we don’t always agree with.

For instance, the liberal California sociologist Arlie Hochschild spent five years interviewing conservative Tea Party activists in Louisiana, making friends and asking deep questions. She urges us all to scale the “empathy wall” and learn each other’s stories.

Here’s a few easy ways to get started.

5.Try a social media fast.

Social media is amazing, but it mostly serves as an echo chamber to reinforce our existing views. It’s not a substitute for talking to people, asking questions, and learning why people support certain policies.

Related Article:Groopspeak Launches New Social Media Tool for Activism

6. Practice the art of civil discourse.

Find ways to meet others face-to-face to engage in conversations, not soapbox speeches and debates. Look at the “Living Room Conversation” movement that brings people together across political divisions. Their goal is to encourage “authentic, respectful conversations” to “strengthen relationships and advance understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and solutions before us.”

Finally, other resolutions should focus on changing our polarizing election system.

7. Eliminate the wealth primary.

Long before voters cast their ballots in a primary, big money donors have winnowed the field and selected who will stand for election. People all across the political spectrum agree that we need fundamental campaign finance reform to reduce the influence of big money, including the repeal of Citizens United.

8. Break the two-party duopoly.

A growing number of voters have declared independence from the two major parties. So why do we allow other voices and perspectives to be excluded from presidential debates? Our democracy would benefit if we had real choices outside the two major parties, as they do in most other countries in the world.

The strength of our civic life depends on what we do outside elections. And especially after the deeply toxic experience of 2016, we all need to step up to protect our real democracy from those who profit from division.

Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org, and is author of the new book, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good.  He is cofounder of Wealth for the Common Good, recently merged with the Patriotic Millionaires. He is co-author of 99 to 1: The Moral Measure of the Economy and, with Bill Gates Sr., of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.

Read more great articles at Common Dreams.




Bernie Sanders is Right—Regulation Isn’t Enough, We Need to Ban Fracking

Anti-fracking demonstration-compressed

An anti-fracking demonstration outside New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office in 2015. (Photo: CREDO.fracking/flickr/cc)

By Deborah Burger | Common Dreams

Hillary Clinton promises to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Yet even if she were to keep this promise, it simply doesn’t go far enough.

Fracking poses an immediate threat to the health of our communities and our environment but, most critically, it threatens our very existence by exacerbating the climate crisis. There is only one solution, that proposed by Bernie Sanders – leave it in the ground. Sanders’ unequivocal ban on fracking, coupled with a just transition to clean and renewable energy, is what this country needs.

As Secretary of State, Clinton endorsed the increased extraction, use, and export of gas and personally advocated for these policies in her discussions with world leaders.

During her tenure there, the State Department worked with large U.S. oil and gas companies to launch the Global Shale Gas Initiative which encouraged countries to reduce regulations and implement legislation that was favorable to fracking. Given her connections with the fossil fuel industry and its millions in contributions, we can expect her to promote such policies in the U.S. And this means increased injury, illness, disease, and death.

“Sanders’ unequivocal ban on fracking, coupled with a just transition to clean and renewable energy, is what this country needs.”

The health problems caused by fracking begin with those working in the fracking industry and radiate out from there.

Sean Sweeney of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, in new research, notes that under a 2013 California disclosure law, drilling companies reported using 197 unique chemicals in 691 oil wells over a two-year period through last February. Fracking fluids, Sweeney said, typically contained about 25 chemicals. An analysis by the Environmental Working Group found that 15 of those listed are cited by California’s environmental initiative Proposition 65 as “known causes of cancer or reproductive harm.”

Fracking requires drilling deep into the earth and injecting a high-pressure water mixture (including water, sand, and chemicals) to release the gas inside the rocks. The fracking process poses greater risks to the workers involved than the already dangerous conventional natural gas extraction.

In addition to exposure to toxic chemicals, workers are exposed to silica dust from the sand. This is known to cause a lung disease called silicosis as well as lung cancer and has been linked to other lung diseases, kidney disease and autoimmune disease.

The new OSHA standard on silica released this year, although a huge improvement, illustrates well the difficulty in regulating the oil and gas industry. Not only did it take nearly 20 years to complete, the oil and gas industry has until the year 2021 before it is required to comply fully.

Fracking also affects surrounding communities and those downstream and downwind. It contaminates our water through spills, leaching, and inadequate treatment of wastewater. It pollutes our environment by releasing methane into the air during the production and transportation processes. It even causes earthquakes.

The list of adverse health effects from the hundreds of chemicals used in the fracking process is long. It includes cancers such as leukemia; immune system impairment; changes in body weight and blood chemistry; damage to the heart, nervous system, liver and kidneys; reproductive disorders; and developmental problems.

But the greatest danger from fracking is the exacerbation of the climate crisis caused by burning the gas extracted. The health effects of the climate crisis are devastating.

The direct effects include the increasing severity of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, heat waves, and droughts and the illnesses and injuries they cause.

There are also numerous diseases related to air quality such as asthma and lung cancer, heart disease, and strokes. Higher air temperatures also increase water and food-borne illnesses such as salmonella, as warmer temperatures serve as breeding grounds for these types of bacteria. Insect-borne diseases are also increasing as climate change worsens.

We see this currently with the spread of Zika. The warmer temperatures provide ideal conditions for insects such as mosquitos to breed across a much a broader area. This allows viruses to spread to areas they’ve never been before and infect populations that have not developed any immune system defenses.

Given what is at risk, it is indefensible that Clinton merely wants to regulate fracking. She maintains that she will implement safeguards such as controlling methane emissions, protecting local water supplies, and requiring disclosure of the chemicals used. Implementation and enforcement of regulations have proven difficult and ineffective at the state and federal levels. Simply put, regulations will not make fracking safe.

But more importantly, the key issue is that Clinton’s promise to regulate fracking, even if kept, misses the point. It is not just about the immediate threat that fracking poses to the health of our communities and our environment, but the threat posed to our very existence by the climate crisis.

As a nurse, I see the debilitating effects of illness and injury every day. I see patients struggling asthma, heart disease, and cancer. I know the role climate change plays in these illnesses.

And I know that the way to protect workers, communities, and the environment is to ban fracking – exactly as only one candidate states unequivocably, Bernie Sanders. This isn’t just a political issue. This is a life or death issue.

Deborah Burger is a registered nurse and a co-president of National Nurses United

Read more great articles at Common Dreams.




Why Hillary’s AIPAC Speech Should Terrify Anyone Who Gives a Damn About Peace

aipac

By Lauren McCauley | Common Dreams

Palestinian and human rights advocates were aghast over remarks made by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention on Monday, saying that her speech represented “everything that is bad” with U.S. imperialism and policy in the Middle East.

During the address, Clinton vowed to take the U.S.-Israel relationship to “the next level”—a level which seemingly includes more war and imperialism, few, if any, rights for Palestinians, and definitely no economic boycotts of Israel.

“Has even one single Clinton supporter denounced the disgusting speech she gave today?”
—Glenn Greenwald
Striking a hawkish tone, Clinton warned the powerful lobby group against rival candidates who want to “outsource Middle East security to dictators” and “cede the mantle of leadership for global peace and security,” and instead vowed even more “security and intelligence cooperation.”

“As president, I will make a firm commitment to ensure Israel maintains its qualitative military edge,” she said. “The United States should provide Israel with the most sophisticated defense technology so it can deter and stop any threats. That includes bolstering Israeli missile defenses with new systems like the Arrow Three and David’s Sling. And we should work together to develop better tunnel detection, technology to prevent armed smuggling, kidnapping and terrorist attacks.”

As observers noted, as she ran down the list of “evolving threats,” the former U.S. secretary of state resorted to common neoconservative talking points, declaring:

As we gather here, three evolving threats — Iran’s continued aggression, a rising tide of extremism across a wide arc of instability, and the growing effort to de-legitimize Israel on the world stage — are converging to make the U.S.-Israel alliance more indispensable than ever.

We have to combat all these trends with even more intense security and diplomatic cooperation. The United States and Israel must be closer than ever, stronger than ever and more determined than ever to prevail against our common adversaries and to advance our shared values.

Touting her “deep, personal commitment” to the “Jewish state,” Clinton then said that “one of the first things I’ll do in office is invite Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] to visit the White House.”

The speech proved that, on matters of Israel, Clinton is “running to the right” of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, as noted by Mondoweiss‘ Philip Weiss, who wrote that the remarks were “filled with red meat for Israel supporters” and “contained scant reference to the peace process.”

Later, Clinton doubled down on her previous pledge to dismantle the growing internationalBoycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, linking the campaign against Palestinian apartheid to anti-Semitism, saying “we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate and undermine Israel and the Jewish people.”

“I’ve been sounding the alarm for a while now,” Clinton continued. “As I wrote last year in a letter to the heads of major American Jewish organizations, we have to be united in fighting back against BDS.”

Clinton then specifically called on young people “on the front lines” to resist efforts to boycott Israel, saying: “I hope you stay strong. Keep speaking out. Don’t let anyone silence you, bully you or try to shut down debate” —to which Naomi Dann, media correspondent for Jewish Voice for Peace, responded:

Though unsurprised by the candidate’s vigorous support for the policies and tactics of the Israeli state, observers pointed to the remarks as a frightening indicator of what a Clinton presidency could mean for the Middle East.

In a statement to Common Dreams, Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said that the dialogue at the convention “is a reminder of the current limits of the mainstream discourse on Israel, which rely on racist and Islamophobic tropes to justify unquestioning support for Israel.”

“From Democrats to Republicans, the message is the same,” Vilkomerson continued. “More arms for Israel, a stronger relationship between Israel and the U.S., no mention of Palestinian rights, and no recognition of the impossible contradiction of being both democratic and Jewish when the state is predicated on maintaining systems of unequal rights and rule by military occupation.”

Watch the entire speech below:

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Want the Most Pragmatic Way to Fix the American Democracy? Do This

clinton-trump-sanders

By Robert Reich | Common Dreams

The Democratic contest has repeatedly been characterized as a choice between Hillary Clinton’s “pragmatism” and Bernie Sanders’s “idealism” – with the not-so-subtle message that realists choose pragmatism over idealism.

But this way of framing the choice ignores the biggest reality of all: the unprecedented, and increasing, concentration of income, wealth and power at the very top, combined with declining real incomes for most and persistent poverty for the bottom fifth.

Related Article: Bernie Sanders Promises to Immediately Break up the Big Banks If Elected

The real choice isn’t “pragmatism” or “idealism.” It’s either allowing these trends to worsen, or reversing them. Inequality has reached levels last seen in the era of the “robber barons” in the 1890s. The only truly pragmatic way of reversing this state of affairs is through a “political revolution” that mobilizes millions of Americans.

Is such a mobilization possible? One pundit recently warned Democrats that change happens incrementally, by accepting half loaves as being better than none. That may be true, but the full loaf has to be large and bold enough in the first place to make the half loaf meaningful. And not even a half loaf is possible unless or until America wrests back power from the executives of large corporations, Wall Street bankers and billionaires who now control the bakery.

I’ve been in and around Washington for almost 50 years, including a stint in the cabinet, and I’ve learned that real change happens only when a substantial share of the American public is mobilized, organized, energized and determined to make it happen. That’s more the case now than ever.

The other day Bill Clinton attacked Sanders’s proposal for a single-payer health plan as unfeasible and a “recipe for gridlock.” But these days, nothing of any significance is politically feasible and every bold idea is a recipe for gridlock. This election is about changing the parameters of what’s feasible and ending the choke hold of big money on our political system. In other words, it’s about power – whether the very wealthy who now have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well.

How badly is political power concentrated in America among the very wealthy? A study published in the fall of 2014 by two of America’s most respected political scientists, Princeton professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern’s Benjamin Page, suggests it’s extremely concentrated.

Related Article: With Call for ‘Political Revolution,’ Bernie Sanders Goes Big in Boston

Gilens and Page undertook a detailed analysis of 1,799 policy issues, seeking to determine the relative influence on them of economic elites, business groups, mass-based interest groups and average citizens. Their conclusion was dramatic: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically nonsignificant impact upon public policy.” Instead, Gilens and Page found that lawmakers respond almost exclusively to the moneyed interests – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.

I find it particularly sobering that Gilens and Page’s data came from the period 1981 to 2002. That was before the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United opinion, which opened the floodgates to big money in politics, and before the explosion of Super Pacs and secretive “dark money” whose sources do not have to be disclosed by campaigns. It stands to reason that if average Americans had a “near-zero” impact on public policy then, the influence of average Americans is now zero.

Most Americans don’t need a detailed empirical study to convince them of this. They feel disenfranchised, and angry toward a political-economic system that seems rigged against them. This was confirmed for me a few months ago when I was on book tour in America’s heartland, and kept hearing from people who said they were trying to make up their minds in the upcoming election between supporting Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.

At first I was incredulous. After all, Sanders and Trump are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. It was only after several discussions that I began to understand the connection. Most of these people said they were incensed by “crony capitalism,” by which they meant political payoffs by big corporations and Wall Street banks that result in special favors such as the Wall Street bailout of 2008.

They wanted to close tax loopholes for the rich, such as the special “carried interest” tax break for hedge-fund and private-equity partners. They wanted to reduce the market power of pharmaceutical companies and big health insurers, which they thought resulted in exorbitant prices. They were angry about trade treaties that they characterized as selling-out American workers while rewarding corporate executives and big investors.

Somewhere in all this I came to see what’s fueling the passions of voters in the 2016 election. If you happen to be one of the tens of millions of Americans who are working harder than ever but getting nowhere, and you feel the system is rigged against you and in favor of the rich and powerful, you will go in one of two directions.

Either you will be attracted to an authoritarian bigot who promises to make America great again by keeping out people different from you and recreating high-paying jobs in America. Someone who sounds like he won’t let anything or anybody stand in his way, and who’s so rich he can’t be bought off.

Or you’ll be attracted to a political activist who tells it like it is, who has lived by his convictions for 50 years, who won’t take a dime of money from big corporations or Wall Street or the very rich, and who is leading a grass-roots “political revolution” to regain control over our democracy and economy. In other words, you will be enticed either by a would-be dictator who promises to bring power back to the people, or by a movement leader who asks you to join together with others to bring power back to the people.

Of the two, I would prefer the latter. But what about the “pragmatic” Hillary Clinton? I have worked closely with her and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s clearly the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have.

Related Article: ‘Enough is Enough!’ Bernie Sanders Declares Corporate Greed Must End

But the political system we now have is profoundly broken. Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have because he’s leading a political movement for change.

Read more great articles at Common Dreams.




The Top Six Global Threats the Presidential Candidates Are Never Asked About

From 'the endless war' to securing a real 'energy security' policy, Bacevich says "today’s crop of presidential candidates either are unable to grasp, cannot articulate, or choose to ignore those matters that shouldrightfully fall under a commander-in-chief’s purview."

From ‘the endless war’ to securing a real ‘energy security’ policy, Bacevich says “today’s crop of presidential candidates either are unable to grasp, cannot articulate, or choose to ignore those matters that shouldrightfully fall under a commander-in-chief’s purview.”

By Andrew Bacevich | Common Dreams

To judge by the early returns, the presidential race of 2016 is shaping up as the most disheartening in recent memory. Other than as a form of low entertainment, the speeches, debates, campaign events, and slick TV ads already inundating the public sphere offer little of value. Rather than exhibiting the vitality of American democracy, they testify to its hollowness.

Present-day Iranian politics may actually possess considerably more substance than our own. There, the parties involved, whether favoring change or opposing it, understand that the issues at stake have momentous implications. Here, what passes for national politics is a form of exhibitionism about as genuine as pro wrestling.

A presidential election campaign ought to involve more than competing coalitions of interest groups or bevies of investment banks and billionaires vying to install their preferred candidate in the White House.  It should engage and educate citizens, illuminating issues and subjecting alternative solutions to careful scrutiny.

That this one won’t even come close we can ascribe as much to the media as to those running for office, something the recent set of “debates” and the accompanying commentary have made painfully clear.  With certain honorable exceptions such as NBC’s estimable Lester Holt, representatives of the press are less interested in fulfilling their civic duty than promoting themselves as active participants in the spectacle.  They bait, tease, and strut.  Then they subject the candidates’ statements and misstatements to minute deconstruction.  The effect is to inflate their own importance while trivializing the proceedings they are purportedly covering.

Above all in the realm of national security, election 2016 promises to be not just a missed opportunity but a complete bust.  Recent efforts to exercise what people in Washington like to call “global leadership” have met with many more failures and disappointments than clearcut successes.  So you might imagine that reviewing the scorecard would give the current raft of candidates, Republican and Democratic alike, plenty to talk about.

But if you thought that, you’d be mistaken.  Instead of considered discussion of first-order security concerns, the candidates have regularly opted for bluff and bluster, their chief aim being to remove all doubts regarding their hawkish bona fides.

In that regard, nothing tops rhetorically beating up on the so-called Islamic State.  So, for example, Hillary Clinton promises to “smash the would-be caliphate,” Jeb Bush to “defeatISIS for good,” Ted Cruz to “carpet bomb them into oblivion,” and Donald Trump to “bombthe shit out of them.”  For his part, having recently acquired a gun as the “last line of defense between ISIS and my family,” Marco Rubio insists that when he becomes president, “The most powerful intelligence agency in the world is going to tell us where [ISIS militants] are; the most powerful military in the world is going to destroy them; and if we capture any of them alive, they are getting a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay.”

These carefully scripted lines perform their intended twofold function.  First, they elicit applause and certify the candidate as plenty tough.  Second, they spare the candidate from having to address matters far more deserving of presidential attention than managing the fight against the Islamic State.

In the hierarchy of challenges facing the United States today, ISIS ranks about on a par with Sicily back in 1943.  While liberating that island was a necessary prelude to liberating Europe more generally, the German occupation of Sicily did not pose a direct threat to the Allied cause.  So with far weightier matters to attend to — handling Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, for example — President Franklin Roosevelt wisely left the problem of Sicily to subordinates.  FDR thereby demonstrated an aptitude for distinguishing between the genuinely essential and the merely important.

By comparison, today’s crop of presidential candidates either are unable to grasp, cannot articulate, or choose to ignore those matters that shouldrightfully fall under a commander-in-chief’s purview.  Instead, they compete with one another in vowing to liberate the twenty-first-century equivalent of Sicily, as if doing so demonstrates their qualifications for the office.

What sort of national security concerns shouldbe front and center in the current election cycle?  While conceding that a reasoned discussion of heavily politicized matters like climate change, immigration, or anything to do with Israel is probably impossible, other issues of demonstrable significance deserve attention.  What follows are six of them — by no means an exhaustive list — that I’ve framed as questions a debate moderator might ask of anyone seeking the presidency, along with brief commentaries explaining why neither the posing nor the answering of such questions is likely to happen anytime soon.

1. The War on Terror: Nearly 15 years after this “war” was launched by George W. Bush, why hasn’t “the most powerful military in the world,” “the finest fighting force in the history of the world” won it?  Why isn’t victory anywhere in sight?

As if by informal agreement, the candidates and the journalists covering the race have chosen to ignore the military enterprise inaugurated in 2001, initially called the Global War on Terrorism and continuing today without an agreed-upon name.  Since 9/11, the United States has invaded, occupied, bombed, raided, or otherwise established a military presence in numerous countries across much of the Islamic world.  How are we doing?

Given the resources expended and the lives lost or ruined, not particularly well it would seem.  Intending to promote stability, reduce the incidence of jihadism, and reverse the tide of anti-Americanism among many Muslims, that “war” has done just the opposite.  Advance the cause of democracy and human rights?  Make that zero-for-four.

Related Article: Why Do All of the Pentagon’s ‘Successes’ in Iraq Look More Like Failures?

Amazingly, this disappointing record has been almost entirely overlooked in the campaign.  The reasons why are not difficult to discern.  First and foremost, both parties share in the serial failures of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere in the region.  Pinning the entire mess on George W. Bush is no more persuasive than pinning it all on Barack Obama.  An intellectually honest accounting would require explanations that look beyond reflexive partisanship.  Among the matters deserving critical scrutiny is Washington’s persistent bipartisan belief in military might as an all-purpose problem solver.  Not far behind should come questions about simple military competence that no American political figure of note or mainstream media outlet has the gumption to address.

The politically expedient position indulged by the media is to sidestep such concerns in favor of offering endless testimonials to the bravery and virtue of the troops, while calling for yet more of the same or even further escalation.  Making a show of supporting the troops takes precedence over serious consideration of what they are continually being asked to do.

2. Nuclear Weapons: Today, more than 70 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, what purpose do nukes serve?  How many nuclear weapons and delivery systems does the United States actually need?

In an initiative that has attracted remarkably little public attention, the Obama administration has announced plans to modernize and upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal.  Estimated costs of this program reach as high as $1 trillion over the next three decades.  Once finished — probably just in time for the 100th anniversary of Hiroshima — the United States will possess more flexible, precise, survivable, and therefore usable nuclear capabilities than anything hitherto imagined.  In effect, the country will have acquired a first-strike capability — even as U.S. officials continue to affirm their earnest hope of removing the scourge of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth (other powers being the first to disarm, of course).

Whether, in the process, the United States will become more secure or whether there might be far wiser ways to spend that kind of money — shoring up cyber defenses, for example — would seem like questions those who could soon have their finger on the nuclear button might want to consider.

Yet we all know that isn’t going to happen.  Having departed from the sphere of politics or strategy, nuclear policy has long since moved into the realm of theology.  Much as the Christian faith derives from a belief in a Trinity consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, so nuclear theology has its own Triad, comprised of manned bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and submarine-launched missiles.  To question the existence of such a holy threesome constitutes rank heresy.  It’s just not done — especially when there’s all that money about to be dropped into the collection plate.

3. Energy Security: Given the availability of abundant oil and natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere and the potential future abundance of alternative energy systems, why should the Persian Gulf continue to qualify as a vital U.S. national security interest?

Back in 1980, two factors prompted President Jimmy Carter to announce that the United States viewed the Persian Gulf as worth fighting for.  The first was a growing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and a belief that American consumers were guzzling gas at a rate that would rapidly deplete domestic reserves.  The second was a concern that, having just invaded Afghanistan, the Soviet Union might next have an appetite for going after those giant gas stations in the Gulf, Iran, or even Saudi Arabia.

Today we know that the Western Hemisphere contains more than ample supplies of oil and natural gas to sustain the American way of life (while also heating up the planet).  As for the Soviet Union, it no longer exists — a decade spent chewing on Afghanistan having produced a fatal case of indigestion.

No doubt ensuring U.S. energy security should remain a major priority.  Yet in that regard, protecting Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela is far more relevant to the nation’s well-being than protecting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq, while being far easier and cheaper to accomplish.  So who will be the first presidential candidate to call for abrogating the Carter Doctrine?  Show of hands, please?

4. Assassination: Now that the United States has normalized assassination as an instrument of policy, how well is it working?  What are its benefits and costs?

George W. Bush’s administration pioneered the practice of using missile-armed drones as a method of extrajudicial killing.  Barack Obama’s administration greatly expanded and routinized the practice.

The technique is clearly “effective” in the narrow sense of liquidating leaders and “lieutenants” of terror groups that policymakers want done away with.  What’s less clear is whether the benefits of state-sponsored assassination outweigh the costs, which are considerable.  The incidental killing of noncombatants provokes ire directed against the United States and provides terror groups with an excellent recruiting tool.  The removal of Mr. Bad Actor from the field adversely affects the organization he leads for no longer than it takes for a successor to emerge.  As often as not, the successor turns out to be nastier than Mr. Bad Actor himself.

Related Article: Why Did Ted Cruz’s Mass Murder Proposal Win Him Higher Poll Numbers?

It would be naïve to expect presidential candidates to interest themselves in the moral implications of assassination as now practiced on a regular basis from the White House.  Still, shouldn’t they at least wonder whether it actually works as advertised?  And as drone technology proliferates, shouldn’t they also contemplate the prospect of others — say, Russians, Chinese, and Iranians — following America’s lead and turning assassination into a global practice?

5. Europe: Seventy years after World War II and a quarter-century after the Cold War ended, why does European security remain an American responsibility?  Given that Europeans are rich enough to defend themselves, why shouldn’t they?

Americans love Europe: old castles, excellent cuisine, and cultural attractions galore.  Once upon a time, the parts of Europe that Americans love best needed protection.  Devastated by World War II, Western Europe faced in the Soviet Union a threat that it could not handle alone.  In a singular act of generosity laced with self-interest, Washington came to the rescue.  By forming NATO, the United States committed itself to defend its impoverished and vulnerable European allies.  Over time this commitment enabled France, Great Britain, West Germany, and other nearby countries to recover from the global war and become strong, prosperous, and democratic countries.

Today Europe is “whole and free,” incorporating not only most of the former Soviet empire, but even parts of the old Soviet Union itself.  In place of the former Soviet threat, there is Vladimir Putin, a bully governing a rickety energy state that, media hype notwithstanding, poses no more than a modest danger to Europe itself.  Collectively, the European Union’s economy, at $18 trillion, equals that of the United States and exceeds Russia’s, even in sunnier times, by a factor of nine.  Its total population, easily outnumbering our own, is more than triple Russia’s.  What these numbers tell us is that Europe is entirely capable of funding and organizing its own defense if it chooses to do so.

It chooses otherwise, in effect opting for something approximating disarmament.  As a percentage of the gross domestic product, European nations spend a fraction of what the United States does on defense.  When it comes to armaments, they prefer to be free riders and Washington indulges that choice.  So even today, seven decades after World War II ended, U.S. forces continue to garrison Europe and America’s obligation to defend 26 countries on the far side of the Atlantic remains intact.

The persistence of this anomalous situation deserves election-year attention for one very important reason.  It gets to the question of whether the United States can ever declare mission accomplished.  Since the end of World War II, Washington has extended its security umbrella to cover not only Europe, but also virtually all of Latin America and large parts of East Asia.  More recently, the Middle East, Central Asia, and now Africa have come in for increased attention.  Today, U.S. forces alone maintain an active presence in 147countries.

Do our troops ever really get to “come home”?  The question is more than theoretical in nature.  To answer it is to expose the real purpose of American globalism, which means, of course, that none of the candidates will touch it with a 10-foot pole.

6. Debt: Does the national debt constitute a threat to national security?  If so, what are some politically plausible ways of reining it in?

Together, the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama can take credit for tripling the national debt since 2000.  Well before Election Day this coming November, the total debt, now exceeding the entire gross domestic product, will breach the $19 trillion mark.

In 2010, Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described that debt as “the most significant threat to our national security.”  Although in doing so he wandered a bit out of his lane, he performed a rare and useful service by drawing a link between long-term security and fiscal responsibility.  Ever so briefly, a senior military officer allowed consideration of the national interest to take precedence over the care and feeding of the military-industrial complex.  It didn’t last long.

Mullen’s comment garnered a bit of attention, but failed to spur any serious congressional action.  Again, we can see why, since Congress functions as an unindicted co-conspirator in the workings of that lucrative collaboration.  Returning to anything like a balanced budget would require legislators to make precisely the sorts of choices that they are especially loathe to make — cutting military programs that line the pockets of donors and provide jobs for constituents.  (Although the F-35 fighter may be one of the most bloated andexpensive weapons programs in history, even Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders has left no stone unturned in lobbying to get those planes stationed in his hometown of Burlington.)

Related Article: “The Big Short” and Bernie’s Plan to Bust Up Wall Street

Recently, the role of Congress in authorizing an increase in the debt ceiling has provided Republicans with an excuse for political posturing, laying responsibility for all that red ink entirely at the feet of President Obama — this despite the fact that he has reduced the annual deficit by two-thirds, from $1.3 trillion the year he took office to $439 billion last year.

This much is certain: regardless of who takes the prize in November, the United States will continue to accumulate debt at a non-trivial rate.  If a Democrat occupies the White House, Republicans will pretend to care.  If our next president is a Republican, they will keep mum.  In either case, the approach to national security that does so much to keep the books out of balance will remain intact.

Come to think of it, averting real change might just be the one point on which the candidates generally agree.




At Stake in 2016 Election: We Must End the Vicious Cycle of Wealth and Power

"As the reformers of the Progressive Era understood more than a century ago, no single president or any other politician can accomplish what’s needed because a system caught in the spiral of wealth and power cannot be reformed from within. It can be changed only by a mass movement of citizens pushing from the outside," writes Robert Reich. (Photo: Mark Sadowski/flickr/cc)

“As the reformers of the Progressive Era understood more than a century ago, no single president or any other politician can accomplish what’s needed because a system caught in the spiral of wealth and power cannot be reformed from within. It can be changed only by a mass movement of citizens pushing from the outside,” writes Robert Reich. (Photo: Mark Sadowski/flickr/cc)

By Robert Reich | Common Dreams

What’s at stake this election year? Let me put as directly as I can.

America has succumbed to a vicious cycle in which great wealth translates into political power, which generates even more wealth, and even more power.

This spiral is most apparent is declining tax rates on corporations and on top personal incomes (much in the form of wider tax loopholes), along with a profusion of government bailouts and subsidies (to Wall Street bankers, hedge-fund partners, oil companies, casino tycoons, and giant agribusiness owners, among others).

The vicious cycle of wealth and power is less apparent, but even more significant, in economic rules that now favor the wealthy.

Related Article: California Politicians Could Soon be Forced to Wear Logos of Top Corporate Donors

Billionaires like Donald Trump can use bankruptcy to escape debts but average people can’t get relief from burdensome mortgage or student debt payments.

Giant corporations can amass market power without facing antitrust lawsuits (think Internet cable companies, Monsanto, Big Pharma, consolidations of health insurers and of health care corporations, Dow and DuPont, and the growing dominance of Amazon, Apple, and Google, for example).

But average workers have lost the market power that came from joining together in unions.

It’s now easier for Wall Street insiders to profit from confidential information unavailable to small investors.

It’s also easier for giant firms to extend the length of patents and copyrights, thereby pushing up prices on everything from pharmaceuticals to Walt Disney merchandise.

And easier for big corporations to wangle trade treaties that protect their foreign assets but not the jobs or incomes of American workers.

It’s easier for giant military contractors to secure huge appropriations for unnecessary weapons, and to keep the war machine going.

The result of this vicious cycle is a disenfranchisement of most Americans, and a giant upward distribution of income from the middle class and poor to the wealthy and powerful.

Another consequence is growing anger and frustration felt by people who are working harder than ever but getting nowhere, accompanied by deepening cynicism about our democracy.

The way to end this vicious cycle is to reduce the huge accumulations of wealth that fuel it, and get big money out of politics.

But it’s chicken-and-egg problem. How can this be accomplished when wealth and power are compounding at the top?

Only through a political movement such as America had a century ago when progressives reclaimed our economy and democracy from the robber barons of the first Gilded Age.

Related Article:Democracy Doesn’t Exist: Here’s Why Voting Doesn’t Change Anything

That was when Wisconsin’s “fighting Bob” La Follette instituted the nation’s first minimum wage law; presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan attacked the big railroads, giant banks, and insurance companies; and President Teddy Roosevelt busted up the giant trusts.

When suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony secured women the right to vote, reformers like Jane Addams got laws protecting children and the public’s health, and organizers like Mary Harris “Mother” Jones spearheaded labor unions.

America enacted a progressive income tax, limited corporate campaign contributions, ensured the safety and purity of food and drugs, and even invented the public high school.

The progressive era welled up in the last decade of the nineteenth century because millions of Americans saw that wealth and power at the top were undermining American democracy and stacking the economic deck. Millions of Americans overcame their cynicism and began to mobilize.

Related Article: Elizabeth Warren Blasts Tax Plan as ‘Giant Wet Kiss’ to Corporate America

We may have reached that tipping point again.

Both the Occupy Movement and the Tea Party grew out of revulsion at the Wall Street bailout. Consider, more recently, the fight for a higher minimum wage (“Fight for 15”).

Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is part of this mobilization. (Donald Trump bastardized version draws on the same anger and frustration but has descended into bigotry and xenophobia.)

Surely 2016 is a critical year. But, as the reformers of the Progressive Era understood more than a century ago, no single president or any other politician can accomplish what’s needed because a system caught in the spiral of wealth and power cannot be reformed from within. It can be changed only by a mass movement of citizens pushing from the outside.

So regardless of who wins the presidency in November and which party dominates the next Congress, it is up to the rest of us to continue to organize and mobilize. Real reform will require many years of hard work from millions of us.

As we learned in the last progressive era, this is the only way the vicious cycle of wealth and power can be reversed.

Read more great articles at Common Dreams.