Reader Comments: Trump 2.0; Resistance 2.0; Thankful for Farmworkers; Another Woman Dies in Texas; U.S. Military Spending vs Other Top Countries; New Directions In Labor Politics; Cartoons; and more....
“I found that the social networks where immigrants acquire knowledge about the American political system shape how they interpret their interests and subsequently how they vote. Most of them arrive in the United States as adults with views based on their lived experiences in their homelands. I discovered that those who are politically socialized through labor unions remain resistant to Trump’s appeal. In contrast, those who learned about US politics through other organizations are more likely to be receptive to right-wing messages and thus supportive of Trump.”
Much of the post-election Democratic Party fretting has appropriately centered on the degree to which it has lost the presumption of being the party of the working class. One solution: "Maybe Democrats have to embrace a Sanders-style disruption."
Bernie Sanders unforgettably demonstrated how much the right presidential primary candidate can alter the national political debate — even when the Democratic Party establishment pulls out all the stops to block them; and even if succeeds in doing so. At the same time, the difficulty in winning and holding congressional seats shows that, while self evidently necessary in the long run, those campaigns do not have the same galvanizing potential. Who? At the moment, the only person whose career thus far suggests such potential is New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. But then a lot can happen in four years. And Donald Trump’s reelection portends four years of American politics bizarre beyond anything we’ve seen before.
From sabotaging Oslo to funneling Qatari cash into Gaza, Bibi has spent his career bolstering Hamas to help perpetuate the conflict. Even after Oct. 7, argues historian Adam Raz, he's still advancing the same strategy.
My favorite is the idea bibi or biden had no clue Oct 7th was coming. Hamas is the most spied on organization in the world. There are probably more spies in Gaza than actual hamas members. And you are gonna tell me they had no clue that an operation that big was gonna happen? Hamas managed to keep it from all the spies somehow? All of them? Stretches credibility.
Captive audience meetings are a key tool for bosses to destroy union drives. With last week’s outlawing of such meetings by the National Labor Relations Board, labor has a window to take advantage before Donald Trump scales back worker rights.
Children's book teaches role of unions, unity and struggle - just what we need for these times. Written by a labor attorney and author, for young readers aged 7-12, just in time for the holidays.
U.S. military spending surpassed $778 billion in 2020.
The U.S. spends more on its military than the next nine highest spending countries combined.
U.S. Military Spending vs Other Top Countries
The U.S. is well known for its immense military and defense spending. In 2020, the nation ranked #1 in the world in terms of military spending at $778 billion outpacing the next nine highest spenders, which came out to $703.6 billion combined.
One factor is the military–industrial complex (MIC) which feeds into the U.S.’ defense dominance, with a longstanding tradition of the defense and weapons industries working closely with the U.S. government and armed forces.
A Breakdown of U.S. Military Spending
So what are these billions being spent on?
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) laid out the spending plan when they made their 2020 budget proposal. It included a few main areas to invest in, including:
Air – $57.7 billion
Maritime – $34.7 billion
Ground systems – $14.6 billion
Space – $14.1 billion
Cyber – $6.9 billion
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The overall goal of the 2020 budget was to promote innovation and to strengthen competitive advantages to increase the military’s ‘readiness’ factor. Additionally, in an effort to sustain forces, a military pay raise of 3.1% was included.
Military Maintenance
Surprisingly, however, the U.S. actually does not have the largest military in the world in terms of personnel, and some of the other top 10 countries have larger or similarly sized militaries spread across different branches.
Russia is only the fourth highest spender, but they have the largest military size of any of the top 10, at around 5.9 million personnel.
All of these countries have militaries that number in the hundreds of thousands to millions, and many are a part of treaties and alliances that require them to upkeep their armies and weaponry — but none spend half as much as the U.S.
To this day, the U.S. is actively involved in a number of overseas conflicts and maintains a large military force with millions of personnel. Spending on areas such as weaponry and wages is significant in order to maintain jobs, as well as national defense.
[The core work of the military expenditure project is to collect, analyse, process and publish data on military expenditure worldwide, and to monitor and analyse trends in military expenditure over time, looking at their economic, political and security drivers and their implications for global peace, security and development.
The military expenditure project is fundamentally data driven. At the heart of the project is SIPRI’s unique, freely available, Military Expenditure Database. The database is updated annually, both with new data for the most recent year and with revisions to past data to take account of new information and ensure consistency over time.
A second key aspect of the work of the military expenditure project is to study issues relating to transparency and accountability in military budgeting, spending and procurement. Such transparency is often quite weak, which can affect the reliability of data, but which more seriously can lead to wasteful and excessive spending, often unconnected to genuine security needs, and to widespread corruption.]
Maurice Mitchell - National Director, Working Families Party;
Rosslyn Wuchinich - President, UNITE-HERE Local 274 in Philadelphia;
Daniel Judt - PhD student, Yale University; previously Political Organizer, Los Angeles UNITE HERE Local 11;
Jenna Fullmer - President, Blue Compass Strategies;
Moderated by Bob Master - former Political Director, Communications Workers of America - District One.
In the aftermath of the November 5th election, how do we assess how the political parties can best serve the interests of a multiracial working class? Although labor union membership remains at historic lows, unions are undoubtedly the largest organization of working class people in the USA. They therefore have a critical role to play in building back the multiracial U.S. working class that rejects hateful divisions, supports democracy, and holds billionaires and corporations accountable.
Join us on December 3rd as leaders of labor and progressive organizations grapple with the challenges of reconstructing working class politics and explore new strategies and directions.
