Category Archives: Commentary

We never learn. Continue reading →

A seemingly ordinary news story, published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, on January 7, shed light on a long-forgotten, yet crucial, subject: Israel’s so-called “firing zones” in the West Bank. Continue reading →

As Ray Charles wailed in a song of true-life blues: “Them that’s got is them that gets/And I ain’t got nothin’ yet.” Continue reading →

Black women in Oakland confronted the austerity regime head-on by seizing the housing their families need. Continue reading →

Washington’s criminal class is bipartisan. Continue reading →

In the 2016 science fiction sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, actor Jeff Goldblum, describing the targeting priorities of aliens invading the Earth, says, “They like to get the landmarks.” In both Independence Day and its sequel, movie viewers were treated to scenes of macabre-looking extraterrestrials destroying the Empire State Building, the White House, Los Angeles’s Tower Records building, and London’s Tower Bridge and “the Eye” wheel. Continue reading →

There’s an old joke about how Richard Nixon was the kind of politician who’d cut down an endangered giant redwood, then climb on the stump and make a speech about conservation. Continue reading →

Try as I did, I found it impossible to send New Year’s greetings to friends in Iraq given the unthinkable and shameless actions of Trump and his regime the last weeks. His decision to assassinate Iranian Major General Qasim Soleimani at the Baghdad airport led to the Iraqi Parliament voting to expel all foreign troops from Iraq. Trump’s quick response to that was “If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.” Continue reading →

The United States has been in a 40-year cold war with Iran. Continue reading →

While an eerie, surreal calm has fallen over US-Iranian relations, I wouldn’t assume we’re out of the woods yet. Trump had no reason to be confident that Iran’s response to his most recent escalation of violence would be little more than symbolic. Although he’s accepted that response more or less passively for now, with Trump, things can turn on a dime. Who can tell what determines his mood at any given time? Continue reading →

Yes, boys and girls, he did say that and if you visit Khamenei’s Twitter site you’ll find him sitting next an an elderly woman and to the right of her a Christmas tree adorned with ornaments, including one of Santa Claus. And did you know, kiddies, that Iran’s Majles, the equivalent of the UK’s House of Commons or the US House of Representatives (one hates to make that comparison to denigrate the Majles) has reserved, by constitutional decree/law—dating to 1906, five seats for the following minorities: two Christian Armenians, one Assyrian-Chaldean Christian, one Jew and one Zoroastrian. The Ayatollah Kohmenei preserved condition after the Iranian revolution of 1979. This according to the United States Institute for Peace (USIP—link above). Continue reading →

In just two weeks, Britain will officially be out of the European Union although during the 11-month transition period the country remains obliged to comply with EU rules and regulations. For roughly half the population January 1, 2021 will be a day to celebrate freedom from EU diktats and to welcome an era of unlimited possibilities. Continue reading →

It is difficult to know who is the most stupid, the protesting Iranian students or the Iranian government. Continue reading →

The government which runs a globe-spanning empire led by a reality TV host keeps talking about the lack of normality in the nation of Iran. Continue reading →

The same forces that are driving massive inequality between the top 1 percent and the rest of us are creating a vast generational wealth gap between baby boomers—my generation—and millennials. Continue reading →

At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of anti-Semitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative. Continue reading →

Once upon a time there was a Constitution of the United States. In Article II, Section 2 it stipulated that only the U.S. Congress has the power to declare war, which means the American president has to go to the legislative body and make a case for going to war against an enemy or enemies. If there is a vote in favor of war, the president is empowered as commander-in-chief to direct the available resources against the enemy. Continue reading →

I have long suspected that Donald Trump would do anything to save his political skin, and I mean anything, including murder and assassination—if threatened with impeachment,—and even commit an act of war against a foreign country. Well, as I feared, he just did that against Iran. Continue reading →

I agree wholeheartedly with George S. McGovern, a former senator and presidential candidate who served in the Vietnam War, about one thing: I’m sick of old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. Continue reading →

At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) have been met”. Continue reading →

In its mortally dangerous and crumbling state, the global capitalist empire temporarily headquartered in the USA is showing more signs of ruling class behavior which would make that of a cornered rat seem passive, humanitarian and reasoned. The year begins with an American terrorist attack killing a popular Iranian leader seen as heroic by many of his people, ever more feverish stories of an alleged Chinese capitalist menace to humanity worse than Mao’s communism, and Russian capitalist threats to the multi-billion dollar perverted circus that passes for democracy in America. As these tales approach hysteria, we are also given wonderful economic news by our ministry of mind management showing a booming national shopping mall and ever expanding stock market, financed by increasing and staggering debt, while growing numbers of Americans are reduced to poverty and homelessness. Things are looking great to those of us who eat soup with a fork or rely on corporate media for trying to understand material reality, but a growing number are aware that we are caught up in a national act of political economic suicide. What is to be done? Continue reading →

Propaganda disguised, sometimes believably, as actual news. Age-old religious teachings being transformed into the dogma of political cults. And now, historical facts being discarded and replaced with alternate chronicles of humanity’s past. Such is the nature of information warfare now being waged by political hucksters, hoaxers, and hustlers on a global scale. Never before have the basics of primary, secondary, and collegiate education been more important in guarding against the whimsical fantasies and alternate realities of politicians like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, Boris Johnson, and others in their mold. Continue reading →

Black Americans, as perpetual targets of US lies and attacks, should be the first to reject Washington’s rationales for war with Iran. Continue reading →

The awful truth about the corporate and governmental power elites in our democratic society is that they really don’t like democracy at all. They prefer to rule by buying lawmakers, hiring lobbyists, running Orwellian PR campaigns, and relying on authoritarian police power to control people. Continue reading →

In March of 1804, French dragoons secretly crossed the Rhine into the German Margraviate of Baden. Acting on orders from Napoleon himself, they kidnapped Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien. After a hastily convened court-martial on charges of bearing arms against France, the duke was shot. Continue reading →

On Friday, 3 January 2020, progressives in the United States and all peace-loving people throughout the world were horrified to learn that Donald Tromp had added to his long list of crimes and imbecilities by ordering the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, who is a hero in his own country, Iran. The murder, which was carried out by means of a drone strike on Friday, immediately and drastically increased the probability of a new large-scale war in the Middle East and elsewhere. Against this background, I would like to review the history of oil-motivated attacks on Iran. Continue reading →

Boeing recently fired CEO Dennis Muilenburg in order “to restore confidence in the Company moving forward as it works to repair relationships with regulators, customers, and all other stakeholders.” Continue reading →

There’s no ambiguity about what’s going on globally. Continue reading →

I know nothing of war. Unfortunately, neither does Donald Trump and he’s the crazy man in charge. Continue reading →

Christmas celebrations indoctrinate people into Christianity because they can be fun and make people want to participate in the Christian holiday and Christianity. Most people are forced to take one or more holidays at Christmas time, so they end up participating in Christmas celebrations. To prevent Christian indoctrination, people who aren’t Christian could have an annual celebration of their own on December 25 called Christmyth or Christ-Myth. The name of this celebration sounds similar to Christmas, but means that Jesus Christ is a myth or fictional character. Continue reading →

Twenty years into the 21st century, and what do we have to show for it? Continue reading →

“They will run and not grow weary,” is a quote from the Bible (Isaiah, 40:41) that adorns the homepage of Kairos Palestine. This important document, which parallels a similar initiative emanating from South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle years, has come to represent the unified voice of the Palestinian Christian community everywhere. One of the main advocates of Kairos Palestine is Archbishop Atallah Hanna. Continue reading →