“Ukraine, U.S. and Putin; who’s the bully?” first appeared on  PoliticalAffairs.net on April 9, 2014. Read it on PoliticalAffairs.net.

If the world breathed a sigh of relief when the Cold War wound down in the late 1980s, it started trembling as U.S.-Russia relations took a dangerous turn over Ukraine and Crimea. This is a very troubling development. If it continues in the present direction, the result will be damaging on a range of issues – nuclear weapons proliferation and elimination, Iran, Syria, terrorism, climate change, and domestic politics in the two countries, to mention a few.

If you listen only to the mainstream media and both Republican and Democratic politicians you get the impression that the perpetrator of this sharply negative turn is the power-hungry Putin, and that the trigger was Russia’s heavy hand in the Crimea.

Dado que vivimos en una época de improductividad económica, una creciente presión por la supervivencia del ser humano, el cambio de sensibilidad y de pensamiento de la gente, el comienzo de la ofensiva contra el capital corporativo a un nivel nacional y global y el continuo reagrupamiento del movimiento comunista a un nivel teórico y práctico, no es sorprendente que las características, la naturaleza y el papel del Partido Comunista de Estados Unidos en el siglo 21 sean un tema de discusión mientras avanzamos hacía nuestra 30ava Convención en Chicago.

“Chris Hedges’ catastrophism is faulty politics” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on February 10, 2014. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.

A friend of mine sends me commentaries by Chris Hedges. He raves about them. In his words, they speak truth to power, tell it like it is. Hedges, he says, “pull no punches.”

I find them instructive and full of insights too; their sense of outrage is palpable.

There is little doubt that Hedges counts among a growing galaxy of progressive and left writers who are challenging conventional wisdom that sustains the system of capitalism and its present political configuration of forces.