Author Archives: Ben Tanosborn

Either our minds have softened in the United States, or our hearts have hardened way beyond the callous stage. Or, likely both! Continue reading →

When it comes to crime in general—and homicidal crime in particular—America seems intent in proving to the world that we are a nation apart. And if the crime sub-specialty is one of mass shootings, such as the event which recently transpired in San Bernardino (California), we purposely shrug off a topic we prefer to keep hushed; a topic which brings out the inglorious fact that the rate of mass shootings in the United States is six times that on the rest of the planet based on population. Not double, not triple, but six times as high! Continue reading →

Vladimir Putin should not be pegged as a master strategist nor as a superb tactician; not when he is proving to be both. But perhaps the most miraculous thing: his success is being carved while presiding over a nation still not fully evolved into a market economy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union; and, still for now, a country export-dependent of its energy resources. Continue reading →

Humble Francisco appears to have chosen, from the time he accepted his papal tasks, a narrow path with overgrown thorny brambles; also a major role as arbiter in the West between two ideologies which view very differently both the exercise of power and the distribution of wealth. Continue reading →

Pictures of migrant-exiles from the Middle East and South-Central Asia, not just Syrians but Iraqis and Afghanis as well, are currently being transmitted by CNN, Aljazeera English and other news giants to homes all over the world in customary repetition which most of us would agree exceeds the canons of proper news reporting. Continue reading →

For years, Winston Churchill’s famous quote, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried,” has served as Americans’ last word in any political discussion which requires validation of the US government, no matter how corrupt or flawed in its behavior, as the best in the planet, comparatively or by default. Never mind the meaning that Mr. Churchill had intended back in 1947, or how the international political panorama has changed during the past seven decades. Continue reading →

On his way from Jerusalem to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus (Christianity’s Saint Paul), the Jewish-Roman persecutor of Jesus’ early disciples, saw a “great light” which blinded him and threw him off his horse. A light which transfigured his life, and made him perhaps the most important personage in the Apostolic Age (First Century); a fundamental figure in Old Christianity. Continue reading →

When we say Novorossiya we are not referring to that territory Russia annexed over two centuries ago from the Ottoman Empire; nor do we mean the less than one year old confederation proclaimed in East Ukraine by the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic. What we have in mind is a new Russia: an emerging, much stronger nation, or federation, callused by the pain inflicted from the United States and its EU-NATO toy-dog through economic sanctions; a wiser Russia . . . a deflowered maiden which resulted from Gorbachev’s well-meaning, but naïve, détente-glasnost days of promise by America’s deceiving Novus-Imperium. Continue reading →

America’s states, fifty stars orderly represented over a background of blue in our flag, may be said to be united . . . but the folks who populate them certainly are not. We may claim to be the United States of America, but rest assured that we are definitely not the United People of America; never have been, and likely never will be, no matter what the pledge of allegiance might deceitfully say, or the colorful fantasy-pens we utilize in writing our history . . . or the misinformation in which we, fat-dumb-and-happy, live. Continue reading →

American corporate press has firmly established its second identity in the Internet: its twin, or its alias, one might say. It does apply, although perhaps not as vividly, in much of Western Europe, this time to the beating of war drums . . . where the only common sound in the cacophony is the current displeasure for that daring devil: Vladimir Putin. Continue reading →

During the past three weeks we have been living in the United States, a wakeup call to reality that heralds Americans might not be quite the people we claim to be; not in the way we treat people within and beyond our borders. Torture and racial discrimination, different issues with similar amoral results, are intermittently resurfacing; creating great distress for the pharisaic promoters of Pax Americana . . . the self-proclaimed patriots convinced that America, given its predestined godly nature, can do no wrong. Continue reading →

Much of conservative America, led by the business community and Wall Street as its parakletos, has from day one after Obama’s election to the presidency granted him a series of political pejoratives that only America’s puritan-capitalism can assign with a straight face, and total ignorance: calling him a socialist, or a communist, or many of the other anti-capitalist denominations in between. Continue reading →

This Monday, November 24, the spark ignited by a 12-person grand jury’s decision in a Missouri community where black people predominate (67 percent in 2010 census) will have most white Americans confounded why blacks behave as they do, shaking their heads in disbelief. Yet, many of us, our skin color and socio-economic condition aside, see this new notch of extreme discontent and protestation by African-Americans, at the white policeman not being indicted, as another loud cry for change; a desperate clinging to primal that dignity by those who feel oppressed. Continue reading →

Don’t count on the United States to be politically prudent in dealing with other nations of the world at any level. Maintaining hegemony, the American ruling-elite feels, is accomplished best not through overly cautious or moderating discussion, but through a strong, unrelenting campaign of discrete belligerence: showing your teeth but holding your bite. Continue reading →

Mid-term elections are over, and the anticipated trouncing of Democrats in Congress took place without a hitch, even if the media selfishly played the uncertainty card. Continue reading →

It was over four decades ago that I first heard the expression “premature oblivion.” It came from a fellow graduate student at UCLA, Stefan, a magisterial peer to many of us, not so much because of his then-soon-to-be ABD status, but rather his Zorba the Greek likeability in his contrarian demeanor. Beyond obstinacy perhaps, most of us close to him would agree, but with an undeniable air of prophetic clairvoyance. And if we took his assertions as Stefan-lite dictums; as the years have gone by, some of us started to realize our misdiagnosed pig-headedness in him was no more than unbending firmness resulting from clear vision, historical knowledge and logical perspective. Continue reading →

All of us, Americans and non-Americans alike, should welcome BRICS’ siding with Russia to restore some semblance of power-balance in all three aspects which depict cohesion or fragmentation in the world: socially, ideologically and militarily. Not wishing for any nation to exercise undue power or influence over the rest, but precisely in order to curb any such nation from misusing that influence and power, we must cling to the hope America’s attempt for world hegemony will soon come to an end. Continue reading →

Monday, August 25, 2014, we found ourselves waking up in an America which is neither in peace with much of the world and, most definitely, far from being in peace with itself. A predicament that philosopher George Santayana warned us about a century ago in a much-quoted, but seldom-heeded warning: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And condemned we are in America . . . for being blind, deaf and mute in acknowledging our past! Continue reading →

Empire-hawks have had the upper hand in American politics for several decades and, given the shifting economic power taking place in the world, they are now seemingly suicidal, ready to lead us into nuclear holocaust. Just like Jim Jones did with his followers 36 years ago in Jonestown. This time, however, the Kool-Aid is being dispensed by the US mainstream media laced with a different poison: raw propaganda against the Russian Federation and its malefic leader, Vladimir Putin. Continue reading →

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 →