Exclusively in the New Print Issue of CounterPunch

How the Democrats Destroyed Welfare

Margaret Kimberley combs through the ruins left by Clintons’ destruction of the federal welfare programs. Historian Carl Boggs on the new US/NATO War on Russia; Dan Glazebrook surveys the radical life of Paul Robeson; Andrew Smolski exposes how the Meridia Initiative was used to militarize the drug war on the US/Mexican border; Arturo Desimone reports from Buenos Aires on the new neoliberal government of Argentina; PLUS: Jennifer Loewenstein on the wreckage of Gaza; Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark on the refugee crisis in Europe; Mike Whitney on how the Fed mangled the economy; Yvette Carnell on Hillary as a broker of Black Life; Jeffery St. Clair on Hillary’s Blood Diamond, a visit to Hemingway’s house in Cuba; and Much More.

What is the Democratic Party Good For? Absolutely Nothing

by Andrew Levine

Think of Republicans and despair for the human race. Even the ones who otherwise seem morally and intellectually sound champion political views straight out of Morons R’Us. However, Democrats are worse -- not morally or intellectually, of course; and neither are their views worse. But within the matrix of our semi-established two party system, Democrats do the most harm.

The Democratic Party is, by default, the political voice of organized labor and of social movements that fight for racial and gender equality, environmental sanity, and other worthy causes. Democrats can therefore do what Republicans cannot: integrate the victims of the status quo into a political consensus that serves and protects those who benefit most from it – the “one percent,” the “billionaire class.” They are good at this. More

Anthropologists Marshalling History: the American Anthropological Association’s Vote on the Academic Boycott of Israeli Institutions

by Roberto J. González – David Price

The membership of the world’s largest professional association of anthropologists, the American Anthropological Association (AAA), is now in the midst of an election that will determine whether or not the Association will apply boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to Israeli academic institutions.

This is the most divisive political issue facing American anthropologists since the Vietnam War, with both supporters and opponents passionately expressing their views in the media, at professional conferences, and in public forums. Strong language and accusations have characterized the debates surrounding the proposed academic boycott. There are good people on both sides. More

Hanford, Not Fukushima, is the Big Radiological Threat to the West Coast

by Robert Jacobs

There is a dangerous radiological threat to the West Coast of the United States that puts the health of millions of Americans at risk. It includes dangers to public health, dangers to the food supply, and dangers to future generations from long-lived radionuclides, including some of the most toxic material in the world. It is not Fukushima, it is Hanford. While radiation from the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns is reaching the West Coast, carried across the ocean from Japan, the radiation from Hanford is already there, has been there for 70 years, and is in serious risk of catastrophe that could dwarf the effects of Fukushima even on Japan. More