‘Tis the time to do our gift-buying for the holidays—and fill every recipient’s shelves and closets with more stuff. I wrote some of this last year at around this time, but so many of you suggested I do so again that I saw the wisdom of a bit of recycling today. Continue reading
The world should gird itself for what can be expected to be the most vitriolic show trial seen since Nazi “People’s Court” Judge Roland Freisler’s theatrics in humiliating from the bench the White Rose underground leaders in Germany and the Operation Valkyrie plotters who tried to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944. Freisler is best known for flying into fits of rage in order to psychologically disarm defendants brought before his court. Continue reading
As the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection by Donald Trump and his allies wraps up, there is hope that some details of the planned coup d’état will be found either in the main report or its appendices. As just one example, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have not advanced their investigations of who planted pipe bombs at Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters. Continue reading
You break it, you own it. That’s what I was told as a child. But for today’s billionaires, it seems like the opposite is true. Continue reading
The Federal Reserve has been hellbent on raising interest rates to slow the economy. It’s a huge mistake. Continue reading
As the war in Ukraine has dragged on for nine months and a cold winter is setting in, people all over the world are calling for a Christmas truce, harkening back to the inspirational Christmas Truce of 1914. In the midst of World War I, warring soldiers put down their guns and celebrated the holiday together in the no-man’s land between their trenches. This spontaneous reconciliation and fraternization has been, over the years, a symbol of hope and courage. Continue reading
Breaking news: After years of failed Republican efforts to uncover any proof of widespread voter fraud by Democrats, Republican Governor Ron “Tough Guy” DeSantis of Florida found not one, but 20 ineligible people casting ballots. Continue reading
Whether they believe their God sent them or that their DNA is superior to the rest of us, the new supremacists who own the GOP represent a threat to American democracy. They’ve tried to conquer America three times in the past: will they do it this time? Continue reading
The 2022 midterm election results “stand as an expression of overwhelming lack of confidence in the major parties,” J.D. Tuccille writes at Reason magazine, “with a resulting breather for the country resulting from the split decision’s ensuing, and quite welcome, gridlock.” Continue reading
U.S. judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida has struck down Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s Individual Freedom Act and the Stop-Woke (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, Walker cited the censorship provisions of DeSantis’s law as a violation of the First Amendment right of free speech and the ban on colleges, universities, public schools, and businesses having more than 15 employees instructing students or employees about cultural and racial awareness as a violation of the 14th Amendment on due process. Continue reading
At least five dead. More than two dozen others injured. The LGBTQ community again shattered. Continue reading
Queer people in America are not feeling “freedom,” particularly after the most recent deadly attack on Club Q in Colorado Springs. As if to amplify the GOP’s message of hate and fear against this vulnerable group of our fellow Americans, it happened on Trans Remembrance Day, when we honor the memory of trans people who’ve been the victims of hate and violence. Continue reading
The largest religion on earth is not Christianity or Islam: it’s the widespread, faith-based belief system which holds that humans are separate from each other and from the world. Continue reading
When Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter was first announced this past April I said that the purchase likely wouldn’t go through if the empire thought it posed a threat to its information interests. I said that any reduction of censorship protocols which Musk implements on the platform would probably not be of the sort that make any difference to the powerful, but would instead just amplify vapid partisan culture war nonsense. Continue reading
Evoking memories of the days when Republicans in control of the House used non-stop investigations and the Tea Party to almost bring down then-President Barack Obama’s historic agenda, the leaders of the GOP in the House made it clear Thursday that they intend to do the same thing to President Joe Biden. Continue reading
This was the most important election in American history, as was the previous one, the one before that, and all previous exercises of marketing that pose as democratic rule in our great example of how to fool most of the people most of the time. Of course this election, as all others, cost more money than the previous marketing fiasco, when more than 14 billion dollars were spent on the 2020 purchase of the White House and Congress which rose to more than 16 billion for this cycle of shopping center lesser evilism that cost even more just to purchase Congress. Clearly, democracy survived its most serious assault in the history of marketing, at least according to our mind managers and consciousness controllers who make pimps and sex workers seem like poets of love. The only thing that is consistent in our one corrupt system with two corrupt parties is the rising profit margin as all manner of advertising, insurance, polling and other marketplace hustlers feast on the profits available in marketing capitalist democracy while claiming to stand for truth, beauty and other forms of mass hallucinations. Continue reading
On November 16, the Respect for Marriage Act achieved 62 votes for “cloture” in the US Senate, meaning that it will proceed to floor debate and likely—after reconciliation with the House version, which passed in July—become law. Continue reading
Soon after arriving in Oslo, my taxi zigzagged through the city’s well-organized streets and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Large billboards advertised the world’s leading brands in fashion, cars, and perfumes. Amid all the expressions of wealth and plenty, an electronic sign by a bus stop flashed the images of poor looking African children needing help. Continue reading
At a recent Istanbul conference that brought many Palestinian scholars and activists together to discuss the search for a common narrative on Palestine, a Palestinian member of the audience declared at the end of a brief, but fiery intervention, ‘we are not red Indians’. Continue reading
WASHINGTON—Former Oval Office Republican occupant Donald Trump has announced yet another run for the White House, even as many Republicans expressed unhappiness with their master, not because they reject his politics, but because they think it is his style that caused mass rejection of his endorsed midterm candidates by the voters. Continue reading
In the face of midterm election results that confounded predictions and crushed Republican hopes for a landslide victory, some in the media are suggesting that the party may finally turn away from Trump. Continue reading
After 36 years of incarceration, political prisoner Mutulu Shakur was granted parole after having been denied on nine occasions. Invariably media accounts mention that he is the step-father of the late rapper and actor Tupac Shakur while saying little about his own history. Any of the elder Shakur’s accomplishments are given short shrift in favor of an emphasis on pop culture celebrity. Continue reading
I wonder if my own government is being truthful about its actions in that part of the world? Continue reading
Who “won” the 2022 midterm elections? Who has cause to crow the loudest? Democrats? They averted the traditional midterm swoon. Florida governor—and presidential hopeful—Ron DeSantis? His state GOP team swept away Dems at every level. Republicans in the House? They’re claiming a bare majority, enough to make life hell for President Joe Biden over the rest of his term. Continue reading
Far-right politicians are dragging America back to the 19th century. Continue reading
The day after every midterm congressional election, conventional wisdom turns to “the presidential campaign starts today.” Continue reading
The pundits are mystified by last Tuesday’s election outcome: they were certain a red wave was on its way. Continue reading
While it’s still too soon to know the full results of the midterms, there were some major victories on Tuesday night that spanned the entire country. Continue reading
Make no mistake about it, those who have demonized modern medical practices, including vaccinations and women’s health care—pejoratively referred to as “abortion” by its opponents—have no place in the public commons as they issue forth snake oil treatments and, like Dr. Mehmet Oz, suggest that an abortion is between a woman, her doctor, and her local politicians. Continue reading
Palestinians and their supporters are justified in celebrating the election victory of the leftist presidential candidate, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brazil’s runoff elections on October 30. But Lula’s victory is incomplete and could ultimately prove ineffectual if not followed by a concrete and centralized Palestinian strategy. Continue reading
In voting against their own interests, including maintaining Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits, a majority of Florida voters not only decided to give the former Miami “rent boy” Marco Rubio a third term in the U.S. Senate but gave a second term carte blanche to Governor Ron DeSantis to continue his march to establish the first Latin American-style fascist state within America’s borders. However, in securing another term as governor to launch his 2024 presidential campaign, DeSantis has incurred the wrath of Florida’s most infamous landed oligarch, former President Donald Trump. But more on that later. Continue reading
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Hitler would have had Ye sterilized and gassed
Posted on December 7, 2022 by Harvey Wasserman
The artist formerly known as Kanye West has told Tucker Carlson he sees “good things” in Adolph Hitler. Continue reading →