Decline and fall of the American labor movement?

Decline and fall of the American labor movement?

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] Longer ago than I care to remember, I discussed “the decline of the American labor movement” with an old friend, a high AFL/CIO official, veteran of many a bitter “organizing campaign”, at its palatial 16th Street Washington headquarters. [Transparency alert: My Mom, a 17-year-old Romanian Jewish solitary immigrant was […]

The commoditization of secrets by those who should know better, but don’t

The commoditization of secrets by those who should know better, but don’t

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] An epidemic of blabberitis has broken out in Washington. Had one more faith in the sophistication of the present governing elite, “black propaganda” might be suspected — that is, deliberate disinformation designed to befuddle the enemy. After all, as James Jesus Angleton, old fox of a generation of professional […]

Pearl Harbor, 9-11 and the neo-isolationist temptation

Pearl Harbor, 9-11 and the neo-isolationist temptation

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] Chief Political Correctness High Priestess Diane Rehm, with one of her often-biased radio panel discussions, recently carried this ancient back to the late 1930s’ Great Debate, framed as “isolationism” vs. “interventionism” in foreign policy. (Full disclosure: I was a teen-age member of William Allen White’s Committee for Defending America […]

The coming train wreck

The coming train wreck

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] Resembling a huge 74-wheeler packed with unassembled goodies, the U.S. is stranded on the world economy grade-crossing with the Euro express gathering speed as it tears down the Trans-Atlantic financial tracks for a seemingly inevitable collision. A police report written by patronizing Harvard economists some time in the dim […]

Communism muddles along in the Middle Kingdom

Communism muddles along in the Middle Kingdom

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] Chen Guangcheng and Bo Xilai represent the two poles of the Chinese political spectrum. Chen is a blind, self-taught lawyer and provincial activist for human rights, in a life and death struggle to reinterpret the system. Bo is a pampered scion of a famous Communist family, until recently a […]

Collapsing Europe is in crisis and the U.S. bailout option, for once, is not available

Collapsing Europe is in crisis and the U.S. bailout option, for once, is not available

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] Despite the fact that Europe is in the Northern Hemisphere, the downward swirl of the euro this month took a reverse direction and started going left — counterclockwise. Maybe it is the first part of the Mayan prediction that gravity will fail later this year and we will all […]

Socialists gone wild, East and West

Socialists gone wild, East and West

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] As more detail seeps around The Great Firewall Beijing masters once thought would suppress all dissident China blogging — and contradictory explanations emanate from Party sources — the case of Bo Xilai and his wife becomes all too familiar. For those who have tried to follow happenings over the […]

Technology, the essential tool of rogue states

Technology, the essential tool of rogue states

Sol W. Sanders [See Archive Technology is politically and ideologically neutral. It would be comforting to believe increasing levels of technology alone could solve social and political problems and make the world a better place. But history has proved that false, alas! again and again. When German scientists with their traditional leadership in chemistry invented […]

And now proof, if any was needed: All is not well with China and its secretive regime

And now proof, if any was needed: All is not well with China and its secretive regime

Sol W. Sanders [See Archive Authoritarian governments are paranoid, but just because they are, as the saying goes, doesn’t mean they aren’t threatened. The Chinese regime is no exception. We currently see a demonstration in shadowy but slashing decisive action by a normally ultracautious regime to purge a leading member. This political drama results from […]

Tough choices, no easy fixes on health care and energy

Tough choices, no easy fixes on health care and energy

Sol W. Sanders [See Archive Like death and taxes the conundrum of short term advantage versus long term gain is always with us, in public as well as private life. Somehow, just now, it seems to be more than usually evident in political-economic decisions before The Republic. Here are two: The Supremes, as I write, […]