2015 in Review: Truthdig’s Best Columns of the Year
At the start of 2016, Truthdig takes a look at some of the columns we published during 2015 that we like best.
Robert Scheer: Bernie Blew It: He Sold Out Instead of Confronting Clinton
Many supporters of the socialist presidential candidate were upset by what Scheer described as Sanders’ “eagerness to forgive Clinton for any malfeasance in her email scandal … Ignoring [in a Democratic presidential debate in October] her outrageous hypocrisy in endorsing the government’s right to read the personal emails of everyone in the world, including the leaders of Germany and Brazil, but not her own, Sanders absolved the former secretary of state of the kinds of security breaches that have put lower-level government workers in prison.”
Robert Scheer: Fools, Fascists and Cold Warriors: Take Your Pick
During the “second GOP debate, a vituperative jingoism reminiscent of the xenophobia that periodically scars Western capitalist societies in moments of disarray” was in evidence, Scheer wrote.
Bill Blum: My Weekend With Bernie: Three Issues Candidate Sanders Didn’t Address at His L.A. Fundraiser
At a campaign fundraiser in Truthdig’s corner of the country, Bill Blum observed that “the independent socialist said a lot of the right things, but he avoided the topics of foreign policy and Edward Snowden.” Blum also asked, “what’s his real motivation for running?
Zubeida Mustafa: Mind-Boggling Conundrums in the Middle East
Truthdig Global Voices contributor Zubeida Mustafa examined “the historic role of American geostrategic shenanigans” in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with an eye to “a shifting global economic balance and the fortunes of American arms manufacturers.”
Chris Hedges: States of Terror
“We waded into conflicts in the Middle East we did not understand, propelled forward by fantasy,” the Truthdig contributor wrote of the military ambitions of U.S. leaders. “And our folly spawned a death spiral of political, social and economic collapse, widespread poverty, massive displacement, misery and radical jihadism.”
Chris Hedges: The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in History
Hedges writes that the 5,544-page agreement “would be another step in the global capitalists’ march to enslave us. Open, sustained revolt is our only option.”
Sonali Kolhatkar: Thank Climate Justice Activists for Doing All They Can to Curb Warming
Reporting for Truthdig from Paris at the United Nations climate change conference, Kolhatkar heard from activists who were not satisfied with the framework for addressing climate change that global leaders agreed upon.
Bill Boyarsky: Why Ending Homelessness is Political Poison
In the first part of a three-part series, Bill Boyarsky says many people are made homeless not by drug addiction or mental illness, but by economic misfortune. And “officials say there is no political upside to solving the problem.”
Douglas Lain: What Marx Was Really Saying
Those who are attempting to revive the legacy of Marx by intuition are doing it wrong, Lain says. “To grasp the work of the groundbreaking economist and philosopher, we have to go beyond his image”.
Juan Cole: Would Syrian Refugee Baby Jesus Be Allowed to Immigrate to the U.S.?
In a season when presidential candidates and their constituents compete over who can more inhumane toward people fleeing oppression, war and famine, “it is worth remembering that baby Jesus is depicted in the Bible, not once but twice, as being a Syrian political refugee,” writes Juan Cole.
Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/2015_in_review_truthdigs_best_columns_of_the_year_20160102/
