Author: Op-Ed

Gun Worship: SCOTUS confirms the pro-life myth by rewarding arms industry just after Uvalde massacre

On June 24, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The so-called “pro-life” crowd in the US has entered into a predictable state of ecstasy following the decision, which will severely complicate life for tens of millions of women across the country – particularly poor women of color, as is inevitable under the system of racialized patriarchal capitalism that Americans call “democracy.” By coincidence, the Supreme Court action took place exactly one month after the May 24 massacre of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in...

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With ruling against abortion rights the U.S. Supreme Court lost its last shred of Constitutional legitimacy

On Friday, June 24, an extremist majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overruled more than 50 years of legal precedent, taking away a previously recognized fundamental right for the first time in the court’s history. In doing so, it unleashed the full force of a regressive, coordinated state-by-state attack on the already perilously eroded right to access an abortion, on women’s rights, the human right to bodily autonomy, privacy, and control over our own lives and dignity, and to life-saving healthcare and freedoms. We are not sounding a new alarm. The nation’s 140 million poor and low-income people, including...

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Public accuses heavily armed Texas police of cowardice for doing nothing to stop Uvalde shootings

Turns out, tough Texans in Stetsons are not so tough. The excuses offered by police in Uvalde to excuse their cowardice only confirm their cowardice. Nineteen armed police stood in an elementary school hallway and did nothing for more than an hour while an armed teenager murdered 19 children pleading for help and the two teachers who perished trying to protect them. That, by any measure, is cowardice. It was not a “wrong decision.” It was cowardice. If only one of the 19 armed police – who apparently waited for 78 minutes for a key to charge into the...

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Maybe it is time to start doubting that the Democratic party can save America from rightwing machinations

When the floodwaters are at our shoulders, when the school boards require a fair hearing to be given to the Nazi position, when capitalism’s ecocide has Mad Max’d every temperate zone, depopulated every savannah, killed every polar bear and when war, disease and debt empty another truckload of disposable people into the abyss, there will be a Democrat on TV preaching that the next election is the most important one of our lives. In January, White House press secretary for the Biden administration Jen Psaki advised people who felt “emotions” about the failure of voting rights legislation to pass...

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Sociology of Evil: Why Ukraine’s new language of war uses Tolkien’s metaphor to express Russian brutality

I am a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and his work. This admiration spans for almost a quarter of a century, however, this dedication is nothing more than a hobby without any academic aspirations. So when the Russians were starting to be called orcs after the invasion, a friend of mine half-jokingly asked me to explain the possible relevance of this metaphor in terms of Tolkien mythology. Back then, I laughed at this idea, any op-ed on this issue would be simply regarded as ‘trolling’ and not a serious analysis. However, the thought never truly left my mind as...

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When Wisconsin parents yell fire after ensuring their unsupervised children have matches and gasoline

For any casual observer of Milwaukee’s 2022 election season, the biggest topic of debate between candidates for Mayor has been the issue of crime, and by extension handguns. The subject has been a dog whistle used by White people for targeting the Black community, and blaming them for the problems created by White society. It is basically a metaphorical house fire designed by White institutions so it cannot be extinguished, while also offering the incentive of adding gasoline to earn more rewards. Both candidates, Cavalier Johnson and Robert Donovan, have attended seemingly endless public forums where moderators or community...

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