Iraqi Kurdish military intelligence reports have estimated that the nine-month-long U.S.-Iraqi siege and bombardment of Mosul to oust Islamic State forces killed 40,000 civilians. This is the most realistic estimate so far of the civilian death toll in Mosul. Continue reading
James Bond creator and British intelligence agent, Ian Fleming, famously wrote “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” Robert Ludlum’s fictional spy, Jason Bourne, said, “Coincidence is rarely a factor.” Continue reading
Fascism . . . a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. (Merriam-Webster) Continue reading
With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, it’s unlikely Trump will be impeached or thrown out of office on grounds of mental impairment. At least any time soon. Continue reading
Talal Samara fingered his prayer beads throughout the interview as he sat in his living room chair, bluish smoke curling upwards from his cigarette. He had recently had surgery, and the doctors had told him that under no circumstances was he allowed to smoke. But the stress of recent events had made this impossible. Continue reading
It’s rife in America, thousands incarcerated and abused for political reasons—notably people of color and Muslims, deplorably treated like fifth column threats. Continue reading
Two of the U.S. government’s supposed allies are supposedly not allies of each other but enemies of each other, but, away from the glare of the ‘news’ media, they actually work together with each other to control, by means of their secret actual alliance with one-another, a substantial, if not the major, part of U.S. foreign policies—especially regarding Iran, Russia, Syria, Israel, Palestinians, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Turkey, but much else besides. These two secret allies of each other, who largely determine U.S. foreign policies, are the Saud family and the government of Israel. Continue reading
His party is publicly rebuking him, corporate executives are rushing to distance themselves from his administration to safeguard their own reputations, and rumors of more White House departures are swirling after Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s ouster. But it appears that President Donald Trump can still count on one bedrock of stability: major right-wing donors. Continue reading
We know that millions of American families lost their homes after Wall Street’s 2007 financial crash. But where did all those houses go? Continue reading
The Civil War continues to plague us from a dark corner of our history. We’ve got to make sense of what happened in Charlottesville last week–the corporate media are doing a horrible job of it, largely because they are represented by elites who have no understanding of anything happening outside their servile echoes of capitalist propaganda at any cost to the public interest. Continue reading
The Muslim conquest of Hispania began in 711 and ended in 1492. In Catalonia, they were expelled by 1154, with their last stronghold the mountainous village of Siurana, which today has but 39 residents, though with several restaurants for tourists. Continue reading
Donald Trump ran his presidential candidacy to appeal to the racist, fascist, and misogynist elements residing in the United States. Yet, we see so many surprised and outraged at his response to the violence perpetrated by his people in Charlottesville, Virginia, the weekend of August 11th through the 12th. As David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the KKK stated, Donald Trump is fulfilling his campaign promises. Continue reading
We have endured Donald Trump for 7 months. Although he has had few legislative victories, he has almost single-handedly destroyed the moral authority of the presidency of the United States at home and abroad, brought us to the brink of a nuclear war without consulting anyone, and sown division and hatred. Continue reading
Trump promised a “stronger and better” deal. The only equitable one is fair, not free, trade benefiting everyone, not business and large investors exclusively. Continue reading
There is increasing chatter among mostly European diplomats that their nations’ displeasure about President Donald Trump would best be shown by staging a diplomatic boycott, namely, recalling ambassadors in Washington and leaving only chargés d’affaires in charge. This type of measure has been used in the past to show opposition to the domestic and foreign policies of foreign governments. Recently, Saudi Arabia led such a boycott, albeit for spurious reasons, against Qatar. Many nations have recalled their ambassadors to Israel following moves by that country against Palestinians. Continue reading
Trump’s unwillingness to denounce the white supremacists who came to Charlottesville last weekend bent on violence has been part of his political strategy from the start. Continue reading
There are many, many people in the United States right now wondering how we got to this point. How we could have a president of the United States unwilling and unable to clearly and firmly condemn white supremacy in his country? How we could have a president of the United States so devoid of humanity, insight and fundamental decency? And, I say “we” as a citizen of the United States. Continue reading
On August 1, the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb was destroyed for the 116th time. As soon as Israeli bulldozers finished their ugly deed and soldiers began evacuating the premises, the village resident immediately began rebuilding their homes. Continue reading
This presidency is unconstitutional. The Constitution says you have to be at least 35 to serve in our highest office and our incumbent tantrum-in-a-suit is emotionally 6 years old. Continue reading
The mass media is being used by the neo-Nazi and neo-Confederate movements to give greater exposure to far-right leaders like Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler, Jack Posobiec, Preston Wiginton, and the most recent self-outed Nazi, broadcaster Alex Jones, to mainstream them and their dangerous ideology. This is similar to the methods used by Adolf Hitler to increase his exposure from a few beer-and-urine-reeking halls in Munich to all of Germany. Continue reading
The tumultuous events that dominate international news today cannot be accurately understood outside of their underlying context, which connects them together, into a broader narrative—the actual history of our time. History makes sense, even if news reports about these events don’t. Propagandistic motivations cause such essential facts to be reported little (if at all) in the news, so that the most important matters for the public to know, get left out of news accounts about those international events. Continue reading
The title of this article is a quote from Mark Bray, an historian of human rights, terrorism and political radicalism in modern Europe who is currently a lecturer at Dartmouth College. He is the author of the forthcoming book, “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.” Continue reading
The scoundrels and misleaders in the Democratic Party are leaving no stone unturned in their effort to escape responsibility for their ignominious defeats. There is no evidence of the Russian government “hacking” the election. Instead evidence points to a leak at the Democratic National Committee which revealed the gory details of their corruption and incompetence. Continue reading
Did they hug and kiss?? That would have made the day! Neither did they hold hands! The pope, while looking just glum never permitted any other niceties, much less holding hands. Continue reading
In Colombia visiting narco-terrorist/Nobel Peace Prize winning President Juan Manuel Santos, Pence threatened Venezuela, saying, “President Trump has made it very clear that we will not stand by while Venezuela collapses into dictatorship.” Continue reading
US President Donald Trump is certainly taking a different approach from his predecessor in tackling the threat from North Korea’s nuclear weapons. He has adopted the type of macho language used by George W. Bush’s Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who warned Pakistan in the aftermath of 9/11 that if it didn’t cooperate it would be bombed back “to the Stone Age.” Continue reading
In 1937, Orwell was shot in the neck during the Spanish Civil War. Known mostly as a political allegorist, Orwell was also a master at describing all that is see¬n, heard and felt, so in Homage to Catalonia, you can read about his near death experience, “Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the center of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all around me, and I felt a tremendous shock—no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal; with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shriveled up to nothing. The sandbags in front of me receded into immense distance. I fancy you would feel much the same if you were struck by lightning. I knew immediately that I was hit, but because of the seeming bang and flash I thought it was a rifle nearby that had gone off accidentally and shot me. All this happened in a space of time much less than a second.” Continue reading
Almost every issue that food activists care about—unlabeled, dangerous ingredients and drug traces; crowded, polluted farms that harm workers and the environment; Agribiz cornering the food supply and destroying family farms; and animal suffering—is magnified when genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) animals are added into the equation. Continue reading
I don’t know about you but I’m pretty fucking calm right now. Maybe even slightly giddy. You see, I was raised in the Baptist Church. Sunday school. Bible school in summer. I memorized so much scripture I was rewarded. Honored to carry the American flag from point A to point B in the auditorium. March, march, marching in obedience. Church. Sermons that scared the Hell right out of me. I attended more than a few tent revivals in Kentucky. Got dunked when I was 12 or so, I think, because my sister made that faithful decision to turn her life over to Christ and I wanted in on the act. As Dr. Phil would ask, “How’s that working for you?” Until this moment not so great. But I digress. Continue reading
Two days late, Donald Trump has finally condemned violent white supremacists. He was pushed into it by a storm of outrage at his initial failure to do so in the wake of deadly violence to Charlottesville, Virginia. Continue reading
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Trump’s Afghan strategy: Forever war and occupation
Posted on August 23, 2017 by Stephen Lendman
Trump’s Monday address on Afghanistan didn’t surprise. What a difference an election makes! Continue reading →