“For Eric Chornoby, leisure time is a ’luxury’ he can’t afford. He’s a union postal worker from Detroit who hasn’t gone on vacation in five years. ‘Everyone told me our generation was getting it good. I did what I was supposed to do. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot get ahead,’ Chornoby said at a rally in Washington, D.C., on February 7. Chornoby, along with other workers from the American Postal Workers Union’s (APWU) Young Members Committee, traveled to the U.S. Capitol to attend the first-ever march for young workers. Today, the federal minimum wage sits at $7.25 an hour, and it hasn’t been increased since 2009. Many states and cities have doubled their minimum wages, but workers want to see an increase at the federal level that’s adjusted for inflation.” (02/23/26)
“Friday’s blockbuster ruling on tariffs was hardly welcomed by the Trump administration, but it was also widely expected. The Supreme Court clearly established in its 6-3 decision that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not afford presidents authority to issue sweeping, unilateral tariffs like those imposed by President Trump over the last year. The justices fractured on other issues. And they left one issue conspicuously unaddressed: What happens to the hundreds of billions of dollars collected from these tariffs so far?” (02/21/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Whenever you say anything online opposing the way the US is preparing for war with Iran or strangling Cuba to death with siege warfare, you’ll always get people whose family comes from the nation in question telling you to be silent and support the US war machine. Their family emigrated at some point because they didn’t like the government, so now they spend their time on social media telling everyone to support US operations to topple that government. The correct response to such people is ‘Shut the fuck up.'” (02/22/26)
“If Eileen Gu’s mother came to America for a better life, she got it. Yan Gu, the daughter of two Chinese government officials, emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s, just a few decades after the passage of the Hart-Celler Act, which overhauled immigration policies and prompted a massive increase in arrivals from Asia and Latin America. Educated at Auburn University, Rockefeller University, and eventually Stanford Graduate School of Business, she dabbled as a ski instructor and, apparently, in venture capital. In 2003, she gave birth to a daughter in San Francisco, raising her in an affluent Bay Area neighborhood. What’s known of Eileen Gu’s childhood reads like a caricature of coastal elitism …. Her story would be elevated as a saccharine picture of the neoliberal American dream, if Gu hadn’t decided to ski for China.” (02/20/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Roger D Harris & John Perry
“The kidnapping of a sitting head of state marks a grave escalation in US-Venezuela relations. By seizing Venezuela’s constitutional president, Washington signaled both its disregard for international law and its confidence that it would face little immediate consequence. The response within the US political establishment to the attack on Venezuela has been striking. Without the slightest cognitive dissonance over President Nicolás Maduro’s violent abduction, Democrats call for ‘restoring democracy’ — but not for returning Venezuela’s lawful [sic] president. So why didn’t the imperialists simply assassinate him? From their perspective, it would have been cleaner and more cost-efficient. It would have been the DOGE thing to do …” (02/22/26)
“You can’t turn around these days without seeing some leftist somewhere whining about white men. As a white man, it seems like every Democrat is an obsessed stalker – it’s enough to make us want to take out a restraining order. I speak for all white men in this piece because, after watching a week’s worth of fawning coverage of the death of Jesse Jackson that glossed over or ignored his racism, affair (oh, the stories I’ve heard) and grifting, I remembered who he simply appointed himself a ‘leader’ and the corporate media crowned him the spokesman for black people, so I’ll take the job for whitey for today. What is the obsession the left has with us? It’s flattering, I suppose. We’ve done pretty well, though you never know it from the way Democrats talk about us.” (02/22/26)
“Mayor Zohran Mamdani has painted himself as the unfortunate victim of a historic budget crisis, but he really should be counting his lucky stars. New York City has a big spending problem, but not a revenue problem. Yet that could change soon — warning signs are already flashing. Mamdani isn’t confronting an external economic shock like a recession, 9/11, the financial crisis or COVID-19. Wall Street is doing fine; the taxes on its stellar bonuses made $5 billion of the city’s budget gap disappear overnight. As much as the mayor would hate to admit it, he needs Wall Street more than it needs him. According to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the securities industry contributes 42.3% of the city’s personal-income tax and 8.4% of its total tax revenue.” (02/22/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish
“A new super PAC is throwing its weight behind progressive Democrats in upcoming midterm election primaries to counter the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobbyist that has recently hidden behind ‘shell PACs’ to fund its preferred candidates, as opposition grows to its unconditional support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, sources told the Prospect. The new PAC, American Priorities, filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission last Thursday. It’s committing to spending multiple millions of dollars across several races, the sources said, beginning with a focus on a pair of Democratic congressional primaries in the South, where progressive candidates are up against establishment opponents. It has so far spent $550,000 on Durham, North Carolina, County Commissioner Nida Allam, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Valerie Foushee for the state’s Fourth Congressional District seat.” (02/20/26)
“Since the 2019 arrest of Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges and related crimes, Americans have witnessed a steady disclosure of the names of public figures and institutions tainted by past association with the late financier. They have noted little if any justice for survivors of his alleged abuses, along with other troubling aspects of the responses to a scandal at the upper reaches of U.S. society. One probable result: a heightened crisis of trust, especially among those less fortunate toward what is seen as a self‑protective network of elite and wealthy people. A survey conducted last year found the United States now has the world’s largest gap in trust of government, business, and media between low-income and high-income earners. The gap is 29 points compared with a global average of 15. The American underclass now perceives a rigged system more than it did in the past.” (02/20/26)
“With a blizzard bearing down on New York City, socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has offered citizens a chance to make a few extra bucks removing snow, but there is a catch, and it’s a doozy: As racist as the Left tells us this is, workers must bring valid ID. Say it ain’t so, Zo. We know from the voter ID debate that marginalized Brown and Black people just can’t figure out how to get driver’s licenses. According to Kamala Harris, it has something to do with not having a Kinkos. So why is Hizzoner pushing Jim Crow 2.0 here? Oh, and, the ID required includes a Social Security card, so in addition to excluding minorities, Mamdani is barring illegal immigrants. Is the mayor worried that people may not be honest about who they actually are?” (02/22/26)
