One thing to be said for the women now heading the Federal Reserve and the IMF: compared to some of their predecessors, they are refreshingly honest. Continue reading
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US Intelligence: Russia didn’t do it
After days of placing hostile blame for the downing of the Malaysian airliner on Russia, the White House permitted US intelligence officials to tell reporters that there is no evidence of the Russian government’s involvement. Continue reading
Entitlement
I opened the latest issue (July 25, 2014) of THE WEEK and read a blurb in “It wasn’t all bad” about six-year-old Emily Heaton who asked her father if she could be a princess. Jeremiah Heaton “began scouring the globe for terra nullius, land unclaimed by any nation”—and found it. Heaton is one accommodating dad. He made a flag and secured the territory—an area of African desert between Egypt and Sudan. It’s now the Kingdom of North Sudan and Emily is its princess. Heaton’s “seeking official recognition from neighboring countries and the UN.” Continue reading
The Good Humor Bar
At five-thirty on a summer Sunday afternoon, I take a walk down Riverside Drive, past the children’s pocket parks, the time-worn benches, the golden sun shining through the giant elm trees, the couples, families, loners sitting on the green (the sign says don’t sit on it,)—nah and I invariably walk over to the Muslim ice-cream man who automatically hands me my favorite, the giant ice-cream sandwich wrapped in silver foil, which I unwrap to give me a lift. I know I have a limited time before the sun begins to melt it—and the three dinky napkins the ice-cream man has gave me is barely good for daintily dabbing my shirt, shorts and Merrills. Continue reading
Intimidation: Supporting genocide
As more and more people are speaking out about Israel’s genocidal attacks against the Palestinian population in Gaza, mainstream media executives are trying to put a lid on it. How else can you explain NBC’s action to remove, from Gaza, Ayman Mohyeldin, an experienced, well respected reporter after he described the arbitrary killing of four young Palestinian boys playing soccer on a beach by members of the Israeli Defense Force. Continue reading
BRICS’ time to act to counter US’s destabilization efforts
It had to happen! The blame game on that horrendous airline incident, Malaysian Flight MH17, has reached the expected loud monotone of pointing fault, lock, stock and barrel at Russia . . . and, more specifically, to that villain ex-KGB Slav, Vladimir Putin. Continue reading
Deep in the tell-tale heart of the Texas GOP
Imagine the official presentation of a worldview concocted by conspiracy theorists and an assortment of cranks and grumpy people. Conjure a document written by scribes possessed of poison pens soaked in the inkpots of Ayn Rand and the Brothers Grimm, caught in the grip of a dark dystopian fantasy of dragons and specters, in which everyone’s wrong but thee and me and we’re not sure of thee. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Putin in America’s crosshairs
The chaos created by United States interventions is never ending and every act of aggression brings the world closer to mass conflict. As is always the case with its interference, the American effort to destabilize Russia has created unforeseen and dangerous consequences. Just as support for jihadists complicated the imperial project in Syria and Iraq, the United States’ instigated war between Russia and Ukraine has spiraled out of the West’s control. Continue reading
Postcard from the end of America: Wolf Point, Montana
It always amazes me how many people get on a train just to play cards, for outside their windows, a most amazing world is constantly unfurling. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Southwest Desert, Northern Plains, Cascades or Rocky Mountains, they don’t look up from their miserably dealt hands to notice that Eden is just a glass barrier away, but that’s how it is with the uber domesticated. They prefer a shrunken, airless civilization, as contained in 52 puny pieces of laminated cardboard, to the unscripted richness they’re entitled to at all times. Although it’s free, they don’t take it. Continue reading
The New Republic is queen of the presstitutes
According to the latest reports, the separatists in Donetsk have handed over to Malaysian authorities the black boxes from the downed Malaysian airliner, which indicates that those who have been blamed by Washington and the Western presstitute media have nothing to fear from the facts. Continue reading
Gaza’s resistance will not be crushed
On the 13th day of Israel’s so-called Operation Protective Edge, stories of entire families collectively pulverized, women and children keenly targeted by Israeli soldiers saturate the media. Until now, 430 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 18 Israel soldiers been killed at the hands of the Resistance. In Shejaiya, elders, mothers and children scrambled for cover as shells mercilessly rained down, stealing the souls of countless innocents. Continue reading
The end of Israel
In his speech to the nation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged yesterday that the war on Gaza is a battle for the existence of the Jewish State. Netanyahu is correct. And Israel cannot win this battle; it cannot even define what a victory might entail. Surely the battle is not about the tunnels or the militants’ underground operation, the tunnels are just weapons of resistance rather than the resistance itself. The Hamas and Gaza militants lured Israel into a battle zone in which it could never succeed and Hamas set the conditions, chose the ground and has written the terms required to conclude this cycle of violence. Continue reading
What the TSA really thinks of you—as if you didn’t already know
It doesn’t take many brain cells to figure out that the TSA, institutionally and individually, holds us in contempt. In their eyes, we’re all potential terrorists. Also peons who have to be put in their place. Never mind that we pay their salaries, every penny of their $8-billion-a-year budget, and that they are supposed to facilitate flying, not impede it. Continue reading
A discourse on isms and the principle of sharing
The problems of humanity have reached such an apex that it is now critical for governments to implement the principle of sharing within and between every single country. It is critical on several counts: firstly, to release the joy and creativity that is inherent in every human being but widely suppressed through economic hardship and social breakdown, with levels of depression throughout the world now reaching epidemic proportions. Secondly, it is critical in a literal sense for the millions of men, women and children who live without adequate means for survival, and who are needlessly dying from poverty and disease with each passing day. Furthermore, it is vital that we integrate the principle of sharing into inter-governmental policies if we are to stand a chance of averting environmental catastrophe, for the necessary time for transforming our societies is fast running out. The world itself is sick and in a state of emergency, for which only sharing can provide the necessary healing and remedy. But on all these counts we are left in a quandary, because the crucial missing factor is a collective understanding that sharing is verily the solution to our problems, and our last remaining hope. Without an all-embracing public awareness that sharing is the only way out, it is impossible that this neglected principle can be implemented into world affairs. Continue reading
Guilt by insinuation
How American propaganda works
Why hasn’t Washington joined Russian President Putin in calling for an objective, non-politicized international investigation by experts of the case of the Malaysian jetliner? Continue reading
The rising global movement that calls for #noTTIP
As the next round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) took place in Brussels last week, civil society groups were continuing to mobilise against this ongoing free trade agreement between the U.S. and EU that poses a threat to our public services, environment, food, privacy and democracy. On Saturday, around a thousand people occupied the square in front of the European Union’s base in London, UK, and demanded an end to the trade deal that is being described by the #noTTIP coalition of activists and organisations as an unprecedented corporate power-grab. Continue reading
The stealing of America by the cops, the courts, the corporations and congress
Call it what you will—taxes, penalties, fees, fines, regulations, tariffs, tickets, permits, surcharges, tolls, asset forfeitures, foreclosures, etc.—but the only word that truly describes the constant bilking of the American taxpayer by the government and its corporate partners is theft. Continue reading
Hair loss drug linked to disturbing side effects that be permanent
No one should have to choose between their hairline and their health. But increasingly, men who use finasteride, commonly known as Propecia, to treat their male pattern baldness are making that choice, often unwittingly. In the 17 years since Propecia was approved to treat hair loss from male pattern baldness, so many disturbing urogenital and other side effects have emerged, the term Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) has been coined and hundreds of lawsuits have been brought. Continue reading
History trips and the vanished left
Visiting the FDR Library and Museum is like journeying to a place where time has stopped and a world much different from the one we now inhabit exists. I hadn’t been to the FDR Presidential Library in several years and eagerly anticipated seeing the newly renovated museum at the library. Here there are no disappointments. FDR’s New Deal and progressive/left politics jump out from every nook and cranny of the exhibit, and the interactive displays of his presidency are so well done that they immediately catch museum goers’ attention and interest. Continue reading
What happened to the Malaysian airliner?
Washington’s propaganda machine is in such high gear that we are in danger of losing the facts that we do have. Continue reading
No winners in this Gaza conflict
The root of the carnage in Gaza is Israel’s occupation, colony expansion, blockade of the Strip and reticence to get serious about peace, so it’s little wonder that Hamas refuses to accept a ceasefire based on the ‘peace for peace’ 2012 model. Its demands include a complete lifting of Israel’s siege on the Strip, the reopening of the Rafah crossing to Egypt 24/7 and a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Continue reading
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
NATO charter member Denmark has been a sycophantic ally of the United States for most of the years following the founding of the Western military alliance in 1949. Until 1949, many Danes favored the creation of a neutralist military bloc of Nordic nations that would steer clear of American and Soviet military alliances. This attitude by the Danes irked Washington. A recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency document titled Neutrality and Third Force Tendencies in Western Europe and dated December 19, 1950, bemoaned the presence of neutralists in Denmark . . . Continue reading
Comical . . . if it weren’t so sad
Evidently, not much has changed in our foreign policy since Gonzi (former Prime Minister of Malta) took us into the Libyan war! However, rest assured that the people would judge you all when they awake! Continue reading
Keepers and patients
At a lunch with some “old friends,” we were talking about our adult children and one of my friends, Vincent Amato, a corpulent fellow with a thick graying beard and longish hair, a wonderful sense of humor and love of history—mentioned that his son had become brutish as some kind of social worker. The son credited that to the fact that Vincent divorced his son’s mother and step-mother. I added that I have a daughter with an MSM from Fordham University and her mother and I were divorced. My other friend Frank Tolopko summed up the situation by saying, “wouldn’t it be funny if the world turned out to be all keepers and patients?” I said,“ It would be a psychological welfare state. We’re almost there.” Continue reading
Planned chaos in the Middle East—and beyond*
Geopolitical observers of the Middle East turbulence tend to blame the raging chaos in the area on the presumed failure of the “incoherent,” “illogical” or “contradictory” policies of the United States. Irrefutable evidence (some of which presented in this study) suggests, however, that, in fact, the chaos represents the success, not failure, of those policies—policies that are designed by the beneficiaries of war and military adventures in the region, and beyond. Continue reading
Malaysian air crash was not the fault of Putin
The most heartbreaking thing is to view Ukrainian refugees on Russia Today (RT.com), children, parents, men, women, crying, still trying to fathom how and why they lost their homes, loved ones, and future. And in addition to this, have seen the Malaysian Flight MH17 with 298 people on board fall out of the air, apparently over the Ukraine. Continue reading
Sanctions and airliners
The unilateral US sanctions announced by Obama on July 16 blocking Russian weapons and energy companies access to US bank loans demonstrate Washington’s impotence. The rest of the world, including America’s two largest business organizations, turned their backs on Obama. The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers placed ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post protesting US sanctions. NAM said that the manufacturer’s association is “disappointed that the US is extending sanctions in increasingly unilateral ways that will undermine US commercial engagement.” Bloomberg reported that “meeting in Brussels, leaders of the European Union refused to match the US measures.” Continue reading
Questions raised about government institute director
It has been four years since Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, was suspected of pharmaceutical conflicts of interest. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, he assured the dean of the University of Miami medical school that if the dean hired Charles Nemeroff, government money would not be denied to U. of Miami. Continue reading
Fake TSA clerk gropes women at SFO; but hey, no harm, no foul
Ah, I love waking up to stories like this! It’s like living in absurdist theater, only the people running the theater are too stupid to see it for what it is. Continue reading
Did the other shoe just drop?
Black Rock and PIMCO sue banks for $250 billion
For years, homeowners have been battling Wall Street in an attempt to recover some portion of their massive losses from the housing Ponzi scheme. But progress has been slow, as they have been outgunned and out-spent by the banking titans. Continue reading
Strategy of killing civilians in Gaza and eastern Ukraine has same culprits
(WMR)—The attack policy that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has used in indiscriminately targeting civilians in Gaza mirrors the policy of the Ukrainian government in attacking civilians in eastern Ukraine. Moreover, the two operations, Israel’s “Protective Edge” and Ukraine’s “Anti-terrorist operation,” have something else in common. Both were developed by the same Zionist fascist elements who are calling the shots in Jerusalem and Kiev. Continue reading
Co-chair of 9/11 Commission backtracks on skepticism
Posted on July 28, 2014 by Wayne Madsen
(WMR)—Former 9/11 Commission Co-chair Lee Hamilton, a one-time chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, backtracked on his previously-pronounced skepticism about the fabrications and evasion faced by his commission in pursuit of the truth about the 9/11 attack. Continue reading →