Intrepid Report.com

Let’s not mince words. Continue reading →

Strongman President Donald Trump has floated the idea of firing Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller if the former FBI director crosses a “red line” and delves into the financial practices of Trump and members of his family. However, the president cannot escape current and reportedly planned investigations of money laundering pursued by non-federal entities, including state attorneys general. Even if Trump pardons members of his family, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for “all past and present crimes,” presidential pardon power only applies to federal criminal charges, not those brought by the states and, definitely, not criminal indictments by foreign legal authorities. Continue reading →

Fish stinks from the head, as the ancient Greeks first said, and right now there’s a 250-pound flounder stinking up the White House and all those around the place. Continue reading →

It’s an international agreement, involving the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany. Continue reading →

CS Lewis has a great point. Everywhere in the United States the disease of subjectivism is present. The evidence abounds: The polarization of the political system; the dismissal of history because of discomfort with historical facts; “trigger” warnings for literary texts that offend sensibility; the vicious censure befalling authors for developing literary characters of a different race or ethnic experience, applying the rules of law for some and not others; or disavowing a higher spiritual power of some sort. Continue reading →

We are living through one of the most staggering political events in American history. What became very tangible with the exposure of Donald Trump Jr.’s email exchange with the lawyer who headed Putin’s PR campaign against the Magnitsky Act sanctions is earthshattering. What is unfolding is unprecedented and has America reeling. Continue reading →

A decade ago in 2007, John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Academic Dean of the Kennedy School from 2002–2006, published The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. The publisher was the prestigious publishing house, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The authors made a convincing case that Israel operating through its American lobbies, which are not registered as foreign agents, succeeds in using US foreign policy in Israel’s interests. The authors conclude that the use of US foreign policy in Israel’s interests is damaging to both America’s national interests and to Israel’s long-term security. Continue reading →

You know what I mean, I don’t have to spell it out. I’m not referring to the necessary healthy kind, the kind that has gotten a bad rap on account of its necessary smell. Continue reading →

The proof that America is not a democracy is quite obvious. Academic studies and our own common sense tell us that this nation is ruled of, for and by wealthy individuals and corporate interests. One of their most tenaciously held prerequisites is the ability to decide who does and doesn’t run for office, and the presidency is their most prized possession of all. Continue reading →

You go to the butcher shop and the sweet young cashier gives you change and says ‘Have a blessed day.’ You call one of your small business customers and they bid you adieu with ‘Have a blessed day.’ You watch some news talk show on the boob tube and the commentator says, ‘Bless our brave warriors.’ A lady at a retail store cashier line gets into a conversation about our (so-called) ‘Iraq War’ and she states equivocally ‘When someone breaks into your house, you have a right to kill them.’ Churches throughout America have, ever since 9/11, been falling over themselves to make sure to ‘Bless our brave troops,’ never beginning to focus on the tens of thousands of innocent civilians our ‘brave troops’ and drone missiles and WMD have murdered in the name of this ‘War on Terror.’ This is madness amplified to the Nth degree! Continue reading →

For those of us who see the dead, the children’s bodies washed ashore, charred skin, how are we supposed to feel? What are we to think? Continue reading →

Have you ever seen a photograph of yourself from the past and laughed or grimaced at the way you were dressed or your hair style? It’s a common experience. But few people draw the obvious conclusion about the present: that our present appearance might be equally laughable. The personal past seems to be “over there,” an object to be understood and dissected for its meaning, while the present seems opaque and shape-shifting—or just taken-for-granted okay. “That was then,” says the internal voice, “but I am wiser now.” Historical perspective, even about something as superficial as appearance, rarely illuminates the present, perhaps because it makes us feel ignorant and unfree. Continue reading →

BDS activism is vital to demand Israel be held accountable for its longstanding high crimes against millions of Palestinians. Continue reading →

Strong words from a brave woman unknown to most Americans because her bravery and boldness didn’t just concern a minority group but all of humanity. She demanded radical change in a system and not just one or another representative to operate that system in a more beneficial way for her group. And the Catholic Worker, the organization she founded and led, operated on behalf of the poorest of Americans while working to both help them and everyone else by advocating and working for radical social change of a system and not just its board of directors. She called a spade a spade, unlike most political leaders of her time and ours. They give euphemism a really bad name and are more likely to identify a spade as a club, hypocrisy as democracy, war as peace, and humans as a market. Continue reading →

The manipulation of news and the distortion of reality are the most powerful weapons in the hands of power. They can make a whole reality disappear. Continue reading →

Every two to four years, we the people are given the opportunity to vote. This is our claim to living in a democracy. Continue reading →

So after six months, has he delivered what he promised you? Continue reading →

RIP George Romero (1940–2017). Continue reading →

What did Trump say when confronted with proof that his son jumped at the prospect of meeting with a “Russian government attorney” offering to dish dirt on Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support” for his candidacy? Continue reading →

If you like these lyrics, you’re most likely to be young, progressive and/or a Westerner. A video of the song begins with John and Yoko walking through a misty woods towards an elegant mansion. Above the door, there’s a sign, “THERE IS NO HERE,” a clear reference to Thomas More’s Utopia, which literally means “no place.” Whereas More was being satirical, Lennon sang “Imagine” quite earnestly, and his admirers see it as an ideal. Considering how things are going in the West, they feel closer to this goal of having no countries than ever. Borders are bad, and nationalism is just another word for fascism, they believe. Continue reading →

Forty years ago this summer, the lights went out. Continue reading →

The environmentalists are fighting their fight, the anti-racists are fighting their fight, those who want universal healthcare are fighting their fight, the anti-imperialists are fighting their fight. I could go on and on but the message should be clear . . . we are divided into pockets of struggle, ignoring the very issue that is the root of all these struggles and around which we should all unite . . . CAPITALISM. Continue reading →