The release on November 6 of two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mi’ri from Israeli prisons was a bittersweet moment. The pair were finally reunited with their families after harrowing experiences in Israel. Sadly, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are still denied their freedom, still subjected to all sorts of hardships at the hands of their Israeli jailers. Continue reading
The Trump EPA wants to introduce a new rule: Its scientists can only use studies that make all of their data public. Continue reading
The violent coup in Bolivia, like all of Washington’s regime-change and dirty tricks operations, has been aided and abetted by corporate media’s masters of euphemism. Continue reading
Why did I testify at the Massachusetts State House on Oct. 7 against legislation that would require public schools to teach the Jewish Holocaust, Armenian and Greek Genocides, and other genocides and “atrocities”? Continue reading
A Bloomberg report of October 22 was concise and uncompromising in declaring Russia to be a surveillance state. Harking back to the good old days of the Cold War, as is increasingly the practice in much of the Western media, Bloomberg recounted that “The fourth of 10 basic rules Western spies followed when trying to infiltrate Russia’s capital during the Cold War—don’t look back because you’re never alone — is more apt than ever. Only these days it’s not just foreigners who are being tracked, but all 12.6 million Muscovites, too. Officials in Moscow have spent the last few years methodically assembling one of the most comprehensive video-surveillance operations in the world. The public-private network of as many as 200,000 cameras records 1.5 billion hours of footage a year that can be accessed by 16,000 government employees, intelligence officers and law-enforcement personnel.” Continue reading
Are you there yet? Continue reading
Some say the U.S. constitution is “gamed” in such a way that we can only have two political parties. Today those are the Democrats and the Republicans. People who oppose third parties say it would be too hard to build a viable third party. However, it’s useful to look at the history of the demise of the Whig Party and its replacement by one of the third parties of the time. Continue reading
The 220-year-old Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York’s mayors since 1942, hosted billionaire Michael Bloomberg for three terms. The first term began after Bloomberg, then the Republican candidate for mayor, spent an incredible $74 million in 2001 to get himself elected. He spent, in effect, $99 for every vote he received. Continue reading
Not long ago I read that a US assistant secretary of state, or perhaps it was a member of the National Security Council, said that now that Washington had reestablished control over Ecuador, it would not be long before the governments of Bolivia, Venezuela, and Cuba would be overthrown. Continue reading
During an interview published in the Economist France’s President Emmanuel Macron accused the White House of inflicting “brain death” on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and accused the US of “turning its back on us” citing America’s withdrawal of troops from northern Syria to pave the way for a Turkish incursion without consultation with allies. Continue reading
Not content with the annual November observance of National Native American Heritage Month, which has been promulgated by every president since George H. W. Bush in 1990, Donald Trump issued a proclamation, published in the Federal Register, also naming November as “National American History and Founders Month.” The White House observance of November to honor the white European settlers who initiated the genocide of the Native American peoples in North America fits into Trump’s championship of white nationalist causes and further erodes his relationship with America’s tribal nations and communities. Continue reading
Pete Buttigieg is by far the billionaires’ top darling amongst all of the Democratic candidates who are running for president, and his stand on healthcare is one of the major reasons for this. Continue reading
Sports have become so commercialized and militarized that I often am tempted to shut my Tv and retire to a state of depression. First, we have what was once a game become a vehicle to sell products. For example, a one hour (that’s 60 minutes) football game has been remade into a 3 to 4 hour commercial. The game has become incidental. The same can be said for basketball, baseball, and hockey. There is rarely a moment when play stops and there is no commercial or commercials to tolerate. Continue reading
“If the facts are your side,” famed attorney and former law professor Alan Dershowitz instructed his students, “pound the facts into the table. If the law is on your side, pound the law into the table. If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table.” Continue reading
The late William Blum documented how Washington toppled numerous sovereign governments, assassinated legitimate leaders, and removed others by coups d’état. Continue reading
All of us are in danger. Continue reading
The act of Palestinian activists covering their faces during anti-Israeli occupation rallies is an old practice that spans decades. The masking of the face, often by Kufyias—traditional Palestinian scarves that grew to symbolize Palestinian resistance—is far from being a fashion statement. Instead, it is a survival technique, without it, activists are likely to be arrested in subsequent nightly raids; at times, even assassinated. Continue reading
The present mind management program obsessingly distracting us with impeachment bulletins by the micro second is part of the consciousness controlling dictatorship which has kept the majority of Americans focused on our feet while our heads are filled with propaganda, what some ruling class servants called “tittytainment,” and anything but the most serious problems of a system decomposing faster than ever and threatening to come down on all our heads while we scrupulously study our feet. Continue reading
Almost daily, I am confronted by an article and/or photo of starving Yemen children and the destruction of their homes. I keep learning that such an attack on the civilian population is against international law. I would like to know, how often or when the US felt the obligation to abide by international or even domestic law. The reality is that they are the bully on the block and they are not obligated to follow any laws. After all, who has the chutzpah (nerve) to challenge them? Continue reading
On November 4, ten dual US-Mexican citizens—members of an offshoot sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — died in a highway ambush, apparently the latest casualties of rampant and violent drug cartel activity in northern Mexico. Continue reading
A thousand young people demonstrated in Brooklyn, jumping over turnstiles in solidarity with others arrested and brutalized by the cops. Continue reading
The one thing you never want to hear your dentist say is “oops!” It’s also alarming to hear from a former U.S. senator—25 years after he passed a temporary oil subsidy for Big Oil. Continue reading
Israel is a Ziofascist police state, masquerading as democratic, a notion it abhors. Continue reading
Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a bone of contention between Cairo and Addis Ababa since 2011 when construction began without consultations or environmental and impact studies. Continue reading
It gets funny, this shallow analysis of the Deep State that is currently big news. There’s something ghoulish about it, perfectly timed for Halloween and masked jokers. What was once ridiculed by the CIA and its attendant lackeys in the media as the paranoia of “conspiracy theorists” is now openly admitted in reverent tones of patriotic fervor. But with a twisted twist. Continue reading
Sorry, Britain, we win. And believe me, I’m sorrier about that than I can say. Continue reading
The world has stopped. The revolutions in Chile and Lebanon are not happening; the destruction of Yemen and the killing of tens of thousands of its citizens are a figment of my imagination; Israel’s continuing program of genocide of the Palestinian people; racism and violence in the US; the lack of a decent, comprehensive health care program; the lack of affordable housing for millions of Americans, etc. are all issues that are not worthy of our attention. The only worthwhile news is the impeachment of Mr. (not my president) Trump. The mainstream media have made certain that we do not hear any news other than Trump and the congressional Democrats who are pursuing impeachment proceedings. That might be why millions of Americans don’t bother to vote… they know no one gives a damn. Continue reading
The Democrats and corporate media don’t really oppose what Donald Trump is doing in Syria or anywhere else. Continue reading
We’re living in two worlds, you and I. Continue reading
Twenty years ago, a newspaper headline asked the question: “What’s the difference between a politician and a psychopath?” Continue reading
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Why aren’t Americans rising up like the people of Chile and Lebanon?
Posted on November 15, 2019 by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies
The waves of protests breaking out in country after country around the world beg the question: Why aren’t Americans rising up in peaceful protest like our neighbors? We live at the very heart of this neoliberal system that is force-feeding the systemic injustice and inequality of 19th century laissez-faire capitalism to the people of the 21st century. So we are subject to many of the same abuses that have fueled mass protest movements in other countries, including high rents, stagnant wages, cradle-to-grave debt, ever-rising economic inequality, privatized healthcare, a shredded social safety net, abysmal public transportation, systemic political corruption and endless war. Continue reading →