Tea Party extremist Mike Mulvaney’s public disservice represents what governance of, by, and for privileged interests exclusively is all about. He’s hostile to virtually everything ordinary people value most. Continue reading
The December 1 arrest by Canadian authorities in Vancouver of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, based on a US extradition warrant, represents a draconian extraterritorial application of a dubious US law and claim of Huawei’s sanctions violations regarding Iran. Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport, while a transit passenger changing planes. Continue reading
Free speech and the ability to speak truth are being shut down. It is happening with the complicity of the print and TV media, the liberal/progressive/left, the US Department of Justice [sic], the law schools and bar associations, Congress, and the federal judiciary. Continue reading
Charles E. Wilson, the CEO of General Motors in the middle part of the last century, reputedly once said that “what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” Continue reading
He represents the worst of what US imperial arrogance is all about, its pure evil agenda, waging war on humanity, supporting some of the world’s worst tinpot despots. Continue reading
Belgium has joined the list of countries that are rebelling against their elected leadership. Over the weekend the Belgian government fell over Prime Minister Charles Michel’s trip to Morocco to sign the United Nations Migration Agreement. The agreement made no distinction between legal and illegal migrants and regarded immigration as a positive phenomenon. The Belgian people apparently did not agree. Facebook registered 1,200 Belgians agreeing that the prime minister was a traitor. Some users expressed concern for their children’s futures, noting that Belgian democracy is dead. Others said they would get yellow vests and join the protests. Continue reading
There was a time when, once they left the job, a former cabinet head or member of Congress would find employment back home casting their seeds of knowledge and experience in the local groves of academe. Or return to naps on the cracked leather sofa at his or her old law firm in South Bend or Twin Falls or Toledo. Continue reading
Up at the North Pole, not much is going on right now. Even the elves are on strike. “Looks like nobody’s going to get any toys this year,” Santa says with a frown. And he’s not even baking chocolate-chip cookies either. It’s that bad. What’s up, Santa? “Everyone has been super-naughty during 2018—and not just only the kids. I’m disgusted.” Continue reading
Generally seen as highly homogenous, Japan is changing fast. In Tokyo, Kawasaki and Osaka recently, I encountered quite a few non-Japanese working at convenience stores and restaurants, and saw many more on the streets. Japan’s largest immigrant groups are Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese and Brazilians. Though the last are mostly ethnic Japanese, they maintain a separate culture, so are perceived as Brazilians. Continue reading
We are approaching critical mass, the point at which all hell breaks loose. Continue reading
The yellow vests ought to be inspirations for the 99% on this side of the Atlantic ocean. Continue reading
Bipartisan hardliners in Washington consider all areas occupied by Pentagon forces virtual US territory, subject to its will under its rules, defying the sovereign rights of nations, fundamental international law, and its own Constitution. Continue reading
How does one explain Canada’s contradictory foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel? Continue reading
Privatization. Privatization. Privatization. It’s all you hear from Republicans. But what does it actually mean? Continue reading
On Tuesday, Time magazine announced its annual Person of the Year Award, honoring what it called “Guardians . . . who have taken great risks in pursuit of greater truths.” Continue reading
The US military is the most respected institution by the American people. According to investigations by the inspector general of the US Department of Defense—investigations which were based on inspections of only portions of the department’s financial records, not of all of them, and so the amount is incomplete—that Department had disappeared at least $21 trillion of funds from US taxpayers during the 18-year period 1998-2015. The US population, during that period, was around 300 million people; so, at a bare minimum, approximately $70,000 was being stolen (or otherwise disappeared at the US Defense Department) from each American during that time. However, $10 in 1998 was worth $14.54 in 2015; so, considering inflation, each American was robbed, during that period, of at least around $90,000, by the most respected institution. The average US household or “family” has 2.54 people. So, the average US household lost AT LEAST around $223,000, from thefts (or ‘lost money’) by the US military, during 1998-2015. (This fact has never been published before, because this calculation has never before been done; the loss to individual persons and families hasn’t previously been calculated.) Continue reading
A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists accuses Trump’s Interior Department of “relentless attacks on science ranging from suppressing and sidelining the work of the department’s scientists to systematically refusing to act on climate change.” Continue reading
The world order has already changed. China has a larger and more powerful industrial and manufacturing based economy than the US, and China’s potential domestic consumer market is four times larger than that of the US. As economies are consumer based, China’s potential is an economy four times larger than that of the US. Continue reading
“I am a Tariff Man,” Trump tweeted last week. “When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. . . . We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.” Continue reading
Author, historian, former State Department official-turned sharp critic of Washington’s destructive imperial agenda William Blum passed away on December 9 at age 85. Continue reading
Trump and his neocons have withdrawn from so many international organizations and agreements that his foreign policy has earned a shameful nickname: “the Withdrawal Doctrine.” Continue reading
I’ve been a postal clerk for 23 years, serving my customers in a public post office in Gresham, Oregon. Continue reading
We should have told them to be more specific. When President Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress called their massive tax overhaul last year the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” most of us assumed the jobs would be in the United States. Continue reading
In the Trumputin world of organized crime, Michael Cohen has committed the ultimate betrayal: he’s helped Robert Mueller prove beyond doubt that don Putin in the Kremlin put his very own bagman into the White House. Continue reading
On November 29, Gallup headlined “Democrats Lead Surge in Belief U.S. Should Be World Leader” and reported, “Three-fourths (75%) of Americans today think the United States has ‘a special responsibility to be the leading nation in world affairs,’ up from 66% in 2010. The surge is driven by Democrats, whose belief in this idea has increased from 61% eight years ago to 81% now.” This finding comes even after the lie-based and catastrophic U.S. invasions of Iraq in 2003, and of Libya in 2011 (and of so many others, such as Afghanistan, where the U.S. and Sauds created the Taliban in 1979). Continue reading
The Ukraine Freedom Support Act (UFSA) of 2014 authorized US lethal and non-lethal aid to Kiev. Continue reading
We are a nation that was founded in opposition to hereditary rule. The founders rejected the notion of a king and embraced the principle that there were to be no royal families who generation after generation governed on the assumption of divine right. Continue reading
On November 28, sixty-three U.S. senators voted in favor of holding a floor debate on a resolution calling for an end to direct U.S. Armed Forces involvement in the Saudi-UAE coalition-led war on Yemen. Describing the vote as a rebuke to Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration, AP reported on Senate dissatisfaction over the administration’s response to Saudi Arabia’s brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi last month. Continue reading
Donald Trump’s “America first” economic nationalism is finally crashing into the reality of America’s shareholder-first global capitalism. Continue reading
On the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. military installations in the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, Donald Trump marked the occasion by tweeting: “FAKE NEWS—THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” Trump’s tweet was sent at 10:08 pm on December 6. At around 10:00 pm on December 6, a man with a southern accent phoned the CNN bureau in New York and warned it that five bombs had been placed in the building. “CNN Tonight,” which was broadcasting live, was forced off the air and the building was evacuated. The news network was forced to rely on taped programming. Continue reading
Cancer kills. Every American knows that. Continue reading
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Tunisia no longer a shining star in ‘Arab Spring’ galaxy
Wage worries, unemployment and a fragile security situation prevail in the country
Posted on December 18, 2018 by Linda S. Heard
Tunisia, which sparked mass uprisings throughout swathes of the Arab world, is still being hailed by the Western media as the Arab Spring’s lone success story, uniting secular and Islamist political strains. Sad to say, there is just as much discontent in the country than there was prior to the 2011 revolution that deposed President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali. People did win a new constitution and the right to participate in free and fair polls but improvements in standards of living and security are lacking. Continue reading →