Category Archives: Commentary

Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people. Continue reading →

“The global trend is sour.” So says Larry Diamond, senior fellow at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution. Continue reading →

Donald J. Trump’s presidential ambition has simmered for decades. He was and is a regular TV watcher and saw the changing political landscape. One by one, previous presidents diminished the integrity of the presidency and violated the rule of law, paving the way for Trump’s candidacy. Continue reading →

Rim Banna, a famous Palestinian singer who translated Palestine’s most moving poetry to song passed away on March 24, 2018, at the age of 51. Rim captured the struggle for Palestinian freedom in the most dignified and melodious ways. If we could imagine angels singing, they would sound like Rim. Continue reading →

What’s the matter with Donald and The Trumpeteers? Why won’t they stand up for the American workers and business owners who make their products right here in the United States? Continue reading →

An abortion rights crisis looms, but Americans have lost their fighting tools, lulled to sleep by the corporate fixers of the Democratic Party. Continue reading →

In the past few weeks, my Facebook feed has exploded with posts about abortion. If you use Facebook, probably yours has too. Continue reading →

The central problem which the world faces in its attempts to avoid catastrophic climate change is a contrast of time scales. In order to save human civilization and the biosphere from the most disastrous effects of climate change, we need to act immediately. But it is difficult to mobilize public opinion behind urgently needed action because the most severe effects of global warming belong to the long-term future. Continue reading →

The federal prohibition on marijuana has been a disaster. For decades, millions of Americans have been locked up and billions of dollars have been wasted. It’s also deepened racial and economic inequality. Continue reading →

In the early 1970s, the Old Confederacy was reborn as the “New South.” Although Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” saw the old Dixiecrat Democrats embrace the Republican Party, a wave of moderate-to-liberal Democrats swept into governors’ mansions across the South. These included Jimmy Carter and Carl Sanders in Georgia, Terry Sanford in North Carolina, Reubin Askew in Florida, Albert Brewer in Alabama, Bill Waller in Mississippi, John West in South Carolina, and Ray Blanton in Tennessee. Even George Wallace, who returned to the Alabama governorship after a 1968 firebrand presidential run geared around segregation and an unsuccessful assassination attempt during his Democratic run for the White House in 1972, became known as one of Alabama’s most progressive and inclusive governors in the state’s history during his third and fourth terms in office. Continue reading →

Remember President Trump’s tweet and accompanying statements by the Trump administration officials concerning Iran—as reported here by CNN on May 19, 2019? Continue reading →

On Monday, 13 May 2019, the New York Times posted an article with the title “White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran. in Echoes of Iraq War”. Besides the aircraft carrier and other naval forces already sent to the Persian Gulf, plans include sending as many as 120,000 US troops to the region. There is a great danger that an attack on Iran might be sparked by a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like false flag incident involving Saudi oil ships. Continue reading →

“If Iran wants to fight,” US president Donald Trump tweeted on May 19, “that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again.” Continue reading →

Throughout the post-WW II era, the US demanded and continues demanding that other countries bend to its will—by pressure, bullying, intimidation, threats, naked aggression and other hostile actions. Continue reading →

On Friday, Germany’s Bundestag voted to brand support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) as anti-Semitic in response to a motion submitted by the Christian Democratic Party, the Greens and the Free Democrats. The resolution cited stickers urging consumers not to buy Israeli goods and appeals to blacklist Israeli artists as echoing Germany’s dark Second World War history. Continue reading →

Activist embassy protectors were invited into Venezuela’s Washington diplomatic facility by its legitimate ruling authorities in Caracas. Continue reading →

In Sweden, prosecutors have applied to the Swedish courts to issue a warrant for Julian’s arrest. There is a tremendous back story to that simple statement. Continue reading →

Remaining promoters of the concept of Donald Trump as President of the United States cite the fact that he has started no new shooting wars while Russiagate has turned out to be a flop and the economy seems to be doing well. He also seems serious about leaving Syria and Afghanistan, though those initiatives are currently on hold pending the approval of his consigliere “Defender of Israel” award winner John Bolton. Continue reading →

Myths and popular tales, like life, are replete with accounts of those not answering the call, of locking the door to their hearts and shutting themselves up in sterile and safe lives where the rest of the world is not even an afterthought, where others suffer and die because of one’s indifference. Answering can be very dangerous, for it can take you on a journey from which you may never return, surely, at least, as the same person. Only the courageous heed the call. Continue reading →

There was little pretense that when former UN Ambassador John Bolton became President Trump’s National Security Adviser and former Rep. Mike Pompeo moved into the Secretary of State position, that either would bring a professionally credible and respectable presence to world diplomacy or foreign affairs. Continue reading →

Chelsea Manning’s release from unjustifiable imprisonment for 63 days over her constitutional right to remain silent was short-lived. Continue reading →

A bill making its way through the Texas legislature would make protesting pipelines a third-degree felony, the same as attempted murder. Continue reading →

Donald Trump fancies himself as a deal-maker. His foreign and economic policies, however, are more akin to those of a Mafia extortionist. At a minute after midnight on May 10, Trump hiked tariffs from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese imports. He also threatened a 25 percent tariff on the rest of the $325 billion of imports from China. Trump, who is as challenged in simple mathematics as he is with the English language, falsely tweeted that Chinese tariffs would be paid directly into the US Treasury. This statement was both comically and tragically wrong. Any increase in US tariffs on foreign goods are charged to the importer, which passes the higher costs on to the American consumer. Trump, in order to stoke his trade war with China, decided to hold the US consumers as hostages to higher costs for goods. Continue reading →

We’ve all been there before. Continue reading →

Last fall, the UN said 20 million Yemenis are hungry, millions facing starvation—because of US orchestrated aggression, ongoing since October 2001 the world body failed to explain. Continue reading →

On May 4, Israel launched a series of deadly airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, prompting a response from various resistance groups. At least 25 Palestinians were killed and nearly 200 people wounded in the Israeli attacks. Four Israelis were also killed by Palestinian rockets. Continue reading →

The great thing about corporate giants is that they’re such amazing business innovators. For example, in the category of “wheel-spinning” innovation—i.e., trying to change a corporation’s course without actually changing anything—it’s hard to top McDonald’s. Continue reading →

We’re living in the most perilous time for abortion rights and reproductive freedom since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. Continue reading →

The U.S. “troika of tyranny,” Trump, Bolton and Pompeo, are making things up as they go along, seeking to bend the planet to their lawless will. Continue reading →

Donald Trump is causing a constitutional crisis with his blanket refusal to respond to any subpoenas. Continue reading →

As of this writing, 802 former federal lawyers—all of them former federal prosecutors working for the U.S. Department of Justice—have signed a public letter headlined on May 6th “STATEMENT BY FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTORS”, which states the charges they all think should be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in an indictment of the president, which then would be considered by the U.S. Senate in a possible forced removal of him from office, which would immediately make the current vice president, Mike Pence, the nation’s president for the remainder of the existing president’s term, which ends on 20 January 2021. Continue reading →