Americans have a voracious appetite for TV entertainment, and the Trump reality show—guest starring outraged Democrats, power-hungry Republicans, and a hodgepodge of other special interest groups with dubious motives—feeds that appetite for titillating, soap opera drama. Continue reading
From inception, democracy in Israel was pure fantasy. Now rights for Jews alone is official with Knesset enactment of apartheid rule over Palestinian citizens. Continue reading
“In my four years as High Commissioner, I have heard many preposterous claims. That claim is almost in its own category of absurdity. Have you no shame, sir, have you no shame? We are not fools.” Continue reading
Black people should be first in line when it comes to casting doubt on the work of intelligence agencies and federal prosecutors. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) ought to uphold the proud tradition of defying corrupt law enforcement. Instead they prove themselves to be happy tools of the neoliberal war party, a bipartisan construct that includes the Democrats. They join with the rest of the democratic party in flogging the Russiagate story and hope that their constituents won’t ask them about anything else. Continue reading
In America, where a union of bankers run a system promoting private initiative ahead of public interest, the president has adopted a ‘so say I’ approach to trade and worldly issues that would not be out of place in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. What can be observed in his approach as ‘leader of the free world’ . . . a very American delusion . . . is the mosaic of initiatives (tweets) he has set in motion to reboot the ‘American Greatness’ illusion. That the scales of justice are tilted against the human component in the ‘greatness’ narrative is irrelevant in the mind of yet another president adept in using superlatives fashioned within the confines of the deep-state for the purpose of calming the angst arising from the millions of poor who find themselves standing in the shallow waters of ‘Lake Equity.’ Continue reading
I was an adolescent when the Cold War began. I remember the “father of (Soviet Russia) containment” George Kennan and Winston Churchill’s 1946 Fulton, MO, “Iron Curtain” speech—later writing about what they both had to say. Continue reading
Humanity has on numerous occasions narrowly missed nuclear Armageddon. Each time it was averted by military officers, both American and Soviet, who understood that the relations between the US and the Soviet Union were not that strained. Today this situation has been radically altered by the corrupt American media, Democratic Party, and military/security complex, who, acting in behalf of Hillary’s political interest and the greed of the armaments industry, have demonized Russia and her president to the extent that malfunctioning warning systems or a temper tantrum of a crazed politician are likely to result in a fatal launch. Continue reading
We Americans believe everyone has a right to have their day in court. Right? Continue reading
Trump uses 5 tactics to create a fog of confusion and bewilderment, so we don’t pay attention to the real damage he’s doing—undermining our democracy; rewarding the rich and hurting the working class, middle class, and the poor; stoking hatefulness; and undercutting America’s standing in the world. Continue reading
Those US and British politicians who are bashing Russia for foreign “election meddling” could use a more honest set of talking points. It is Israel, not Russia, China, or North Korea, that hosts a blossoming industry of cyber-election meddlers who operate from corporate offices in Tel Aviv, Cyprus, London, Washington, and Tortola. Most, if not all, of these firms, received their start-up funds from Israeli government-backed business development venture capital funds, some of which are solidly linked to right-wing American financiers like Robert Mercer, Paul Singer, Sheldon Adelson, and Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Continue reading
As part of its broad and relentless effort to roll back longstanding workplace safety regulations that have drastically reduced on-the-job injuries and deaths over the past several decades, President Donald Trump’s Department of Labor (DOL) has officially sent the White House a proposal to allow teenagers to “spend full days operating chainsaws and meat slicers and working in other dangerous occupations.” Continue reading
As a boy in the US-Apartheid 1950s I remember being indoctrinated about differences between the races which made white athletes superior. No need to look in any particular place, it was a dominant theme everywhere in U.S. culture. Continue reading
The Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” for the Palestine-Israel has, predictably, gone over like a lead balloon. So it’s shifting gears. The Washington Post reports, “With President Trump’s promised Middle East peace plan stalled, administration officials are focusing on improving conditions in the impoverished Gaza Strip—a move that could put political pressure on Palestinian leaders to come to the negotiating table.” Continue reading
On the phony pretext of seeking to reduce the High Court of Justice’s caseload, extremist Knesset members will vote this week on a repressive bill to limit the right of Palestinians to challenge illegal settlement construction on stolen land. Continue reading
In what many observant Muslims consider to be an act of sacrilege, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia governing the country in the name of his ailing father, King Salman, has permitted Israeli intelligence agents to enter Mecca and Medina. MBS has struck a close working relationship with the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, and the Israeli Defense Force’s military intelligence arm, AMAN, to counter several perceived threats, including Iran. Continue reading
Notorious billionaire and war profiteer Erik Prince, who founded the disgraced mercenary firm Blackwater, is once again appealing to President Donald Trump to privatize the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan. Continue reading
In light of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s executive power grab, albeit with the approval of 52 per cent of the country’s population, can Turkey still lay claim to being a democratic republic based on the separation of powers? Continue reading
Like America and other Western states, democracy in Israel is pure fantasy, absent from inception. Continue reading
The State of Israel has no oil wells. It has no gold mines. What has it got? It has the ownership of the remembrance of the Holocaust. Continue reading
On July 12, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Peter Strzok testified before 70 members of a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on his actions as the chief of the bureau’s counter-intelligence division during the 2016 presidential election. Strzok’s text messages, in which he criticized Trump, were fodder for the Republicans who used the occasion to push their various unfounded conspiracy theories. Strzok’s marriage issues, political leanings, and ethics were brought into question by Republicans who have no business accusing others of improprieties. Continue reading
Israel holds Gazans hostage under an illegal blockade since mid-2007—unrelated to security issues, solely for political reasons. Continue reading
Anti-poverty advocates are rejecting a new Trump administration report that ridiculously declares the “War on Poverty is largely over and a success.” In the words of Rebecca Vallas at the Center for American Progress, it is “part of a carefully calculated strategy to reinforce myths about the people these programs help” and “to smear these programs with a dog-whistle of welfare, in order to make them easier to cut.” Continue reading
President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Why should you care? Because everything from reproductive rights to voting, education, and health care is now at stake. Continue reading
As the political season heats up, Trump is ramping up his lies through his three amplifiers: Fox News, rallies, and Twitter. Continue reading
There are those who will tell you that any mention of a New World Order government—a power elite conspiring to rule the world—is the stuff of conspiracy theories. Continue reading
The administration of American strongman Donald Trump is engaged in introducing a troubling form of “Newspeak” that is reminiscent of the politically-correct language instituted by the fictional super-state of Oceania in “1984,” George Orwell’s classic novel about a dystopian future. Continue reading
A recent European Council summit in Brussels was meant to articulate a united policy on the burgeoning refugees and migrant crisis. Instead, it served to highlight the bitter divisions among various European countries. Considering the gravity of the matter, Europe’s self-serving policies are set to worsen an already tragic situation. Continue reading
A number of years ago, at the height of the whole Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky insanity, a certain someone figuring prominently in the right’s exploitation of the scandal occasionally lunched with friends of theirs at a restaurant where I hung out on a near daily basis. Continue reading
The jokes about New Jersey keep coming. It has the third highest taxes in the country, yet ranks dead last in fiscal health. Its most successful residents flee. Continue reading
A draft Middle East “peace” plan, scheduled to be rolled out by Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then put on hold, involved Mohammed Dahlan, a key former Palestinian Authority figure who now aligns with United Arab Emirates pro-Israeli crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahayan (MBZ). Continue reading
For decades now, going back to when Bob Geldoff handed over millions in cash to Meles Zenawi during “We Are the World” circa 1983-4 supposedly for food aid for the victims of what was then the Great Ethiopian Famine, the City of London has been at the heart of Grand Theft Ethiopia, grand theft Africa really. Continue reading
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The sexual passion of Winston Smith
Posted on July 20, 2018 by Edward Curtin
There is a vast literature analyzing the political prophecy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Big Brother, double-speak, telescreens, crimestop, etc.—all applied to our current political situation. The language has become part of our popular lexicon, and as such, has become clichéd through overuse. Blithe, habitual use of language robs it of its power to crack open the safe that hides the realities of life. Continue reading →