Category Archives: Commentary

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s request to Donald Trump to delay this year’s State of the Union address, scheduled for January 29, was based on advice she received from national security and counter-terrorism experts worried about a “Designated Survivor” scenario. Continue reading →

In the midst of the longest government shutdown in history, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown last week launched a “Dignity of Work” listening tour. Continue reading →

With chaos in the White House, worsening climate disasters, more wars than we can count, and a wobbling economy here at home, the last thing we need is another big challenge. But—look out!—here comes a doozy! Continue reading →

As Martin Luther King’s birthday is celebrated with a national holiday, his death day disappears down the memory hole. Across the country—in response to the King Holiday and Service Act passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1994—people will be encouraged to make the day one of service. Such service does not include King’s commitment to protest a decadent system of racial and economic injustice or non-violently resist the U.S. warfare state that he called “the greatest purveyor of violence on earth.” Continue reading →

Did anyone else besides me watch that TV special on John F. Kennedy Jr the other night? Hmmm. Not sure what to think about it. Why are they showing it to us now? Maybe I’m being a bit paranoid (again) but it appeared to be the ultimate masterpiece of public-relations propaganda—American style. Continue reading →

My grandfather was an illegal alien. During the 1800s he travelled from England, where he was born, to Canada, which was British territory in those days, so he wasn’t required to have a passport. He travelled to the Canadian West, then crossed the border into Idaho, to be known, thereafter, as an American. Continue reading →

Years before Edward Snowden provided documented proof that the National Security Agency was really a national insecurity agency as it was violating law and the US Constitution and spying indiscriminately on American citizens, William Binney, who designed and developed the NSA spy program revealed the illegal and unconstitutional spying. Binney turned whistleblower, because NSA was using the program to spy on Americans. Continue reading →

I’ve been trying to write something about the events of the past few days for the last week and a half, and every time I set out to achieve editorial brilliance, or at least try to keep typos and the splitting of infinitives to a minimum, something else wacky happens and it’s back to square one. I’d say it’s Sisyphean if only I knew what that meant. Continue reading →

Replacing Venezuela’s Bolivarian social democracy with US-controlled fascist tyranny is a key Trump regime aim in Latin America—wanting Big Oil able to exploit the country’s world’s largest oil reserves, along with Washington gaining another imperial trophy. Continue reading →

The biggest untold story about how we pay for government involves a big switcheroo by America’s wealthy. Continue reading →

I painted houses for a decade, and on our crews, we always knew of each other’s relative competence, willingness to work, sense of responsibility, substance addictions, if any, and, ultimately, character. My roommate, Jay, for example, really didn’t give a fuck, for he was often late, but somehow always rehired, for our boss, Joe LeBlanc, was a softie. Once, Jay and I left our rather pitiful, unheated apartment at exactly the same time, yet Jay somehow managed to miss the bus, thus work for that day. Continue reading →

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump regime “sought options to strike Iran,” falsely saying it may pursue a course no previous US leadership considered. More on this below. Continue reading →

The science on climate change is clear: All countries desperately need to restructure fossil fuels out of their economies. Continue reading →

The only redeeming aspect to Trump’s presidency is he brings us back to basics. And what could be more basic than the difference between democracy and dictatorship? Continue reading →

The US wants all nations worldwide colonized, their resources looted, their people exploited as serfs, including ordinary Americans. Continue reading →

Newly-inaugurated Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, is set to be the arch-enemy of the environment and of indigenous and disadvantaged communities in his country. He also promises to be a friend of like-minded, far-right leaders the world over. Continue reading →

Ever since it was decided to locate the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, the world body has been beset by constant meddling by the host country, that is, the United States, which is increasingly violating the letter and spirit of the 1947 treaty between the United States and United Nations regarding the headquarters of the UN. The treaty, signed on June 26, 1947 at Lake Success, New York between UN Secretary General Trygve Lie and US Secretary of State George Marshall guarantees the extraterritorial nature of the UN headquarters in Manhattan. Furthermore, it guarantees that the US will not interfere with the expeditious granting of US visas to foreigners and UN personnel transiting through US territory in furtherance of their responsibilities to their own governments and the UN. Continue reading →

If you think our government’s war policy has become out-of-this world cuckoo, consider the spaciness being proposed by the cosmonauts on Spaceship Trump. Continue reading →

US Senator Marco Rubio poses as a representative of Florida Republicans, but in truth he represents the interests of Israel. He is sponsor of legislation that punishes Americans who boycott Israel as their way of protesting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. That Rubio is doing his best to dismantle what little is left of the First Amendment doesn’t seem to bother Florida voters or the presstitute media, who are no longer protective of the First Amendment. Continue reading →

Poor Madam Jane—always wearing black, moping around and looking sorrowful. “You are not your brain,” I keep telling her, me being currently in the process of reading a book by that name. “You should always be on the look-out for deceptive brain messages,” I say. Continue reading →

In 1961, the poet Robert Frost was asked to recite one of his works at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. At the ceremony, as Frost tried to read the poem he had written for the occasion, “Dedication,” the sun was so bright and the text on the page so faint that it was difficult to see, even when Vice President Lyndon Johnson handed Frost his silk top hat to shield the glare. Continue reading →

Ever since I was a young boy, I have wondered why people do the kinds of work they do. I sensed early on that the economic system was a labyrinthine trap devised to imprison people in work they hated but needed for survival. It seemed like common sense to a child when you simply looked and listened to the adults around you. Karl Marx wasn’t necessary for understanding the nature of alienated labor; hearing adults declaim “Thank God it’s Friday” spoke volumes. Continue reading →

During a late night layover in Minneapolis a decade ago, I found myself in a McDonald’s. Manning the cash register was a chubby black woman, and the ordering customer was a black flight attendant who was young, thin and pretty, how all American air stewardesses used to look, before the ageism lawsuits. In Asia, they’re still uniformly pleasing to the eyes. Help wanted ads in Vietnam often specify whether they want men or women, and in what age range. In this totalitarian state, people can hire whomever they want. Continue reading →

I come to you more from sorrow than from anger, President Trump seemed to be trying to say when he addressed the nation Tuesday night. But he was lying, of course, and the effect was more like that of the Big Bad Wolf dressing up in grandma’s nightgown than a person truly concerned with the fate of anyone other than himself. Continue reading →

No border crisis exists, no justification for partially shutting down government. What’s going on is a bipartisan political standoff unrelated to national security. Continue reading →

The Democrats are making news after being sworn into the 116th Congress as the majority party in the House of Representatives. The media give great attention to the increase in the numbers of women, Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Muslim members, and of course Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The first ever Palestinian-American member made news by calling president Trump a “motherfucker.” But as a character on an old television commercial asked, “Where’s the beef?” Continue reading →

“A historic mistake” is how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to calls for early elections last November. A few weeks later, he spoke, in exaggerated confidence of the “unanimous” agreement of his right-wing coalition that early elections must be held next April. Continue reading →

When one considers the aphorism, “It’s a man’s world,” one should realize that world lies within a female order. We fly through space at 1.3 million miles per hour within a galaxy of billions of stars known as the Milky Way, after the nurturing female secretion. Continue reading →

Polling on the border wall shows that Trump’s proposal is very unpopular amongst the American electorate, especially amongst the people who live near the Mexican border; but Republicans nationwide do support his proposal—and overwhelmingly. Trump’s base is the mass of people who approve of Trump and his initiatives no matter what (they buy the Trump brand, regardless), but even Republicans who live near the Mexican border oppose him on this. Continue reading →

Speech, media, academic, and other fundamental freedoms are threatened in America by majority bipartisan congressional hardliners. Continue reading →