Category Archives: Commentary

There is a vast literature analyzing the political prophecy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Big Brother, double-speak, telescreens, crimestop, etc.—all applied to our current political situation. The language has become part of our popular lexicon, and as such, has become clichéd through overuse. Blithe, habitual use of language robs it of its power to crack open the safe that hides the realities of life. Continue reading →

From inception, democracy in Israel was pure fantasy. Now rights for Jews alone is official with Knesset enactment of apartheid rule over Palestinian citizens. Continue reading →

Black people should be first in line when it comes to casting doubt on the work of intelligence agencies and federal prosecutors. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) ought to uphold the proud tradition of defying corrupt law enforcement. Instead they prove themselves to be happy tools of the neoliberal war party, a bipartisan construct that includes the Democrats. They join with the rest of the democratic party in flogging the Russiagate story and hope that their constituents won’t ask them about anything else. Continue reading →

In America, where a union of bankers run a system promoting private initiative ahead of public interest, the president has adopted a ‘so say I’ approach to trade and worldly issues that would not be out of place in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. What can be observed in his approach as ‘leader of the free world’ . . . a very American delusion . . . is the mosaic of initiatives (tweets) he has set in motion to reboot the ‘American Greatness’ illusion. That the scales of justice are tilted against the human component in the ‘greatness’ narrative is irrelevant in the mind of yet another president adept in using superlatives fashioned within the confines of the deep-state for the purpose of calming the angst arising from the millions of poor who find themselves standing in the shallow waters of ‘Lake Equity.’ Continue reading →

I was an adolescent when the Cold War began. I remember the “father of (Soviet Russia) containment” George Kennan and Winston Churchill’s 1946 Fulton, MO, “Iron Curtain” speech—later writing about what they both had to say. Continue reading →

We Americans believe everyone has a right to have their day in court. Right? Continue reading →

Trump uses 5 tactics to create a fog of confusion and bewilderment, so we don’t pay attention to the real damage he’s doing—undermining our democracy; rewarding the rich and hurting the working class, middle class, and the poor; stoking hatefulness; and undercutting America’s standing in the world. Continue reading →

As a boy in the US-Apartheid 1950s I remember being indoctrinated about differences between the races which made white athletes superior. No need to look in any particular place, it was a dominant theme everywhere in U.S. culture. Continue reading →

On the phony pretext of seeking to reduce the High Court of Justice’s caseload, extremist Knesset members will vote this week on a repressive bill to limit the right of Palestinians to challenge illegal settlement construction on stolen land. Continue reading →

In light of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s executive power grab, albeit with the approval of 52 per cent of the country’s population, can Turkey still lay claim to being a democratic republic based on the separation of powers? Continue reading →

Like America and other Western states, democracy in Israel is pure fantasy, absent from inception. Continue reading →

The State of Israel has no oil wells. It has no gold mines. What has it got? It has the ownership of the remembrance of the Holocaust. Continue reading →

Israel holds Gazans hostage under an illegal blockade since mid-2007—unrelated to security issues, solely for political reasons. Continue reading →

President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Why should you care? Because everything from reproductive rights to voting, education, and health care is now at stake. Continue reading →

A number of years ago, at the height of the whole Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky insanity, a certain someone figuring prominently in the right’s exploitation of the scandal occasionally lunched with friends of theirs at a restaurant where I hung out on a near daily basis. Continue reading →

Long gone from the High Court are towering figures like William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, the court’s finest hours during their tenure—champions of justice for all. Continue reading →

The pope was referring to the physical garbage dump we have made of the planet but he might just as well have been speaking of the dominant Western values which are the motivating factor in the creation of that filth. Our adherence to the market forces of capitalism has meant massive private profit in the creation of that “immense pile” which he criticized even if not using the C-word. And the supposed ethical or moral code that supports the system and enjoys a foundation built in part on diverse religious support is as much at fault as any political economic group which employs the professional government, media and religious workers that make its global reality accepted as the seemingly natural work of a market god. Continue reading →

Nominating another right-wing extremist to the nation’s High Court surprised no one. Continue reading →

Among the more egregious movements now active on the American scene are those that seek to undermine the expression of reality within the public sphere. A good example of this is the long-running effort of some Protestant fundamentalists who seek to challenge the notion of evolution in public school textbooks and classrooms. This particular effort not only pits the unprovable religious beliefs of a relatively small number of ideologues against one of the best-demonstrated scientific theories of the modern age, but also seeks to shut down the public’s “right to know” the difference between opinion and fact. Continue reading →

As someone who was born and raised in the border state of New Mexico, I’m very familiar with political speak about immigrants and the border, especially when it comes to talking about safety. Continue reading →

It seems to me that some opportunistic Western politicians are exploiting the refugee crises to feather their own nests by appealing to voters fearful of being culturally swamped and threatened economically. They tap in to people’s nationalistic instincts engendering contempt for the other, rendering ‘compassion’ to the status of a dirty word. Continue reading →

Duplicity and betrayal define US relations with other nations and its own ordinary people—ill-served, abused and exploited in deference to its privileged class. Continue reading →

The wailing in our country about the “invasion of immigrants” has been long and loud. As one complainant put it, “Few of their children in the country learn English . . . The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages . . . Unless the stream of the importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.” Continue reading →

Remember back to that very sad day when you finally found out that there wasn’t any Santa Claus? That everything your parents had ever told you about Santa Claus was a lie? And not only that, but then you also found out that millions of other kids in America, just like you, had been systematically lied to as well? And that the culture of an entire nation has colluded to make YOU believe in cute little elves and Mrs. Santa and chimneys and cookies after midnight and some happy workshop at the North Pole. . . . Continue reading →

When it comes to fundamental Palestinians rights, Netanyahu operates like a tinpot despot. Continue reading →

As president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa was a Godsend for the Ecuadorian people, for Latin American independence and for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. By serving justice and truth instead of Washington, Correa earned Washington’s hatred and determination to destroy him. Continue reading →

For those still deluded enough to believe they’re living the American dream—where the government represents the people, where the people are equal in the eyes of the law, where the courts are arbiters of justice, where the police are keepers of the peace, and where the law is applied equally as a means of protecting the rights of the people—it’s time to wake up. Continue reading →