On major geopolitical and other issues, mass deception overrides truth and full disclosure in establishment media print editions and daily broadcasts—wealth, power and privileged interests served over peace, equity and justice. Continue reading
Imagine being obliged to sleep shivering on the street or under canvas in the dead of winter. For most of us curled-up and cosy under our duvets with the TV remote at the ready such a dreadful scenario is so alien that it rarely crosses our minds. Continue reading
For many years, Giovanna De La Rosa enjoyed working at Toys ‘R’ Us—especially during the holiday shopping season. “I loved bringing joy to families and to children,” she shared at a recent congressional hearing. “I watched so many of the local kids grow up over the years while shopping in our store.” Continue reading
At last Wednesday’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, both committee members and the panel of constitutional scholars repeatedly invoked the names of the nation’s Founding Fathers, who, for all their faults and flaws, were in large part educated people. Continue reading
Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from. Continue reading
Every year, much of the U.S. population celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas to show appreciation for their families and friends. Thanksgiving normalizes the colonial origins of the United States and erases the brutality of the English settlers who massacred indigenous people to prepare the land for capitalist accumulation. Christmas is the annual holiday of big business. On no other day are workers more encouraged to spend their wages on the latest consumer product to gift to their loved ones. The holidays bring with them a deep pressure to be merry. Yet on this holiday season, workers have little to celebrate. Continue reading
These are pretty words expressing lofty ideals. However, we humans have a corrupted side. Continue reading
The latest war in Yemen, ongoing since 2015, started when the Houthi tribes in the north made a deal with former President Saleh (whose son remained head of the army under the agreement made with the Saudis to get him to vacate the Yemen presidency) to work together to conquer all of Yemen militarily. Continue reading
A blockbuster exposé on federal immigration policy and consultants at McKinsey & Company has suddenly bumped the giant consultancy industry onto America’s political center stage. Continue reading
While Congress subjects the nation to its impeachment-flavored brand of bread-and-circus politics, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts. Continue reading
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it has finalized a plan to tighten punitive work requirements for food stamp recipients, a move that would strip nutrition assistance from an estimated 750,000 low-income people by mid-2020. Continue reading
I must be a closet masochist. I just completed several hours of watching the impeachment hearings and am amazed at how many times “our democracy” was mentioned, how many times Russia’s threat to “our democracy” was mentioned, how many times the Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression was mentioned, and how many times Trump’s withholding of billions of dollars plus weapons, from the Ukraine, was a threat to our national security was mentioned. This was an effort indulged in, not only by our elected officials, but by the star witnesses as well. Continue reading
This time, nothing seems to work. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and to avoid possible prison time. But for Israel’s longest-serving leader, the honeymoon is certainly almost over. Continue reading
About thirty percent of US citizens love Donald Trump, mostly true-believing conservatives, evangelicals, etc. Continue reading
US officials, other Western and Israeli ones consistently lie, deceiving the public by being able to reach a large audience and get widespread media coverage. Continue reading
Hours after video surfaced of world leaders appearing to mock him at a cocktail function the night before, President Donald Trump on Wednesday cut short his visit to the 2019 NATO Summit in London with a parting shot at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, one of the people caught on tape ridiculing the U.S. leader. Continue reading
For months Western media outlets have been retailing stories about riots in Hong Kong. With lip-smacking relish there have been such reports as “On October 1, China’s National Day, the first live round to hit a protester was fired by riot police pursued by protesters in the distant suburb of Tsuen Wan.” Unfortunately for the anti-China zealots in the US and Europe there were no deaths of rioting students, except one “who fell from a parking garage during a police dispersal operation… escalating tensions between police and the public that have been increasingly strained over the months of worsening violence.” The two incidents in which rioters were shot by policemen made Western headlines. Continue reading
Self-styled liberals believe they are a better class of people than Trump, but are bigger supporters of unjust wars than the so-called “deplorables.” Continue reading
“I absolutely must go see GWB’s new presidential library while I’m here in Dallas,” I told the friend that I was staying with. Continue reading
Future historians, if they exist, will look back in amazement at the leaders of three nations in particular. The leaders—Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and US President Donald Trump—not only ignore, but criticized and question solid scientific data that the planet is in extreme environmental danger of a global catastrophe. Making matters worse, these leaders continue to advocate for damaging measures—coal burning, rainforest destruction, and fossil fuel vehicles—that worsen the extinction-level peril to humans and most other living things on the planet. Our future historians will discuss whether the political leadership of the early 21st century was driven by some crazed religious desire for “specicide” of the human race, as well as other species. Continue reading
The benefits of Social Security, a program designed to help vulnerable and low-income people, have since the 1980s become increasingly skewed toward the wealthy due to demographic shifts and soaring inequality, according to a new report. Continue reading
Anyone who’s been paying attention should get the picture by now. Overall, in subtle and sledgehammer ways, the mass media of the United States—owned and sponsored by corporate giants—are in the midst of a siege against the two progressive Democratic candidates who have a real chance to be elected president in 2020. Continue reading
Like anyone else who was around that day, I can tell you exactly where I was on 9/11. Continue reading
In an interview with the Associated Press, US Attorney General William Barr put all conspiracy theories to rest once and for all by assuring the world that alleged sex trafficker and alleged billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s death was simply the result of a very, very, very long series of unfortunate coincidences. Continue reading
Today is GivingTuesday but let’s make December GivingNewsdays to raise the crucial funds that keep Intrepid Report publishing, along with all the other news sites that value independence and freedom, that don’t take advertising, don’t have paywalls and don’t receive funding from foundations or corporations. Continue reading
The world is currently mired in massive malfeasance in office by senior government officials, including heads of state and government, who are more interested in personal gain than in government service. Mixed in with financial and political scandals in dozens of nations is the specter of some government officials being involved in illegal sexual activities with underage individuals. Continue reading
The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in history, guaranteeing the security, prosperity, and freedom of its members.” But Trump was right the first time around: Rather than being a strong alliance with a clear purpose, this 70-year-old organization that is meeting in London on December 4 is a stale military holdover from the Cold War days that should have gracefully retired many years ago. Continue reading
Turkey, the increasingly wayward NATO member, has been making more national and international headlines than usual. Continue reading
He’s maybe the most dangerous politician of my lifetime. He’s helped transform the Republican Party into a cult, worshiping at the altar of authoritarianism. He’s damaged our country in ways that may take a generation to undo. The politician I’m talking about, of course, is Mitch McConnell. Continue reading
Tomorrow is GivingTuesday but let’s make December GivingNewsdays to raise the crucial funds that keep Intrepid Report publishing, along with all the other news sites that value independence and freedom, that don’t take advertising, don’t have paywalls and don’t receive funding from foundations or corporations. Continue reading
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Senile, demented & incontinent: NATO at 70
Posted on December 10, 2019 by Martin Sieff
“Old Age,” the great French President Charles De Gaulle famously said, “is a shipwreck.” We should certainly feel that way about the 70th birthday celebrations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—the most venerable security alliance and organization in the world. Continue reading →