The Supreme Court has just now certified the deadliest and most economically destructive scam of the entire Trump catastrophe. Continue reading
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Category Archives: Special Reports
AIPAC and the Federal Election Commission
Reviewing AIPAC’s history since its 1963 creation reveals a consistently well organized campaign of manipulation and evasion of the US election law as one necessary ingredient to its invincible image on Capitol Hill. The American Israel Political Affairs Committee has long claimed it is not a political action committee, that it does not endorse candidates nor provide financial donations to political campaigns. As with all things involving AIPAC, there is another side to the story. Continue reading
Corruption, mismanagement at USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service put consumers at risk, whistleblower says
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which operates under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and employs more than 10,000 people, is tasked with ensuring the safety and proper labeling of U.S. meat, poultry and eggs. Continue reading
UN official fears for Assange if he is expelled from Ecuador’s London embassy
Concerned about reports of Julian Assange’s expulsion from Ecuador’s London embassy, UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer expressed alarm, intending to get involved in what’s going on. Continue reading
Congress is about to ban the government from offering free online tax filing. Thank TurboTax.
A bill supported by Democrats and Republicans would make permanent a program that bars the IRS from ever developing its own online tax filing service.
Just in time for Tax Day, the for-profit tax preparation industry is about to realize one of its long-sought goals. Congressional Democrats and Republicans are moving to permanently bar the IRS from creating a free electronic tax filing system. Continue reading
‘Blatant violation of the First Amendment’: Public Citizen sues Betsy DeVos for censoring its website
"We've been highly critical of Betsy DeVos for putting students at the mercy of predatory for-profit colleges. We won't let her silence us."
Public Citizen sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday for allegedly blocking access to the consumer group’s website on her department’s guest Wi-Fi and internal networks. Continue reading
Trump’s tropical trauma
In a blatant attempt to unravel the bloc of Venezuela’s Caribbean allies formed nurtured by Venezuela’s late president, Hugo Chavez, Donald Trump and his foreign policy team of neo-conservative war hawks has accomplished to divide the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to a degree not seen since 1983. That year saw President Ronald Reagan order the US invasion of CARICOM member Grenada, an event that saw CARICOM split on supporting the move. Among the CARICOM members, Bahamas, Belize, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago opposed the US invasion, while other states either participated in the military occupation of CARICOM member Grenada or voiced support for it. Continue reading
US government’s refusal to confirm or deny it put American journalist on drone kill list called ‘chilling’
‘The government seeks to shield itself from all inquiry into the process by which it acts as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.’
Lawyers for an American journalist who believes he was placed on the government’s infamous “kill list” warned Tuesday that the rights of all U.S. citizens are at stake if the country’s drone assassination program is allowed to continue. Continue reading
Understanding the American dictatorship
The American dictatorship is by the aristocracy of the country’s 585 billionaires, and has been scientifically proven beyond any doubt, now, not only in the classic Gilens and Page study, which examined thousands of bills in Congress and their money-backers and their ultimate outcomes (passage or failure to pass), during the studied period, 1981-2002. But also another (though less rigorous) study suggests that this control of the U.S. government by America’s billionaires is getting even worse. So, America is clearly a dictatorship, by America’s aristocracy. Continue reading
Trump to add ‘tasteless insult to injury’ by promoting fossil fuel deregulation in shadow of fatal chemical fire
‘It's no surprise that Trump is once again taking an action championed by climate deniers and fossil fuel companies.’
Just a week after a chemical plant explosion killed one worker and spewed thousands of pounds of dangerous pollutants into the air in Crosby, Texas, President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to visit that city Wednesday to sign executive orders to speed up approval of pipelines and other fossil fuel projects. Continue reading
‘Tax the rich. It’s just that simple’: US campaign aims to make wealthy pay their fair share
‘Taxing the rich isn't just good policy, it's good politics—and this campaign will prove that. Raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy is wildly popular.’
A coalition of over a dozen progressive advocacy groups launched a nationwide “Tax the Rich” campaign Wednesday with the goal of building a grassroots movement to unrig the tax code and make wealthy Americans pay their fair share. Continue reading
Pentagon obsession: China, China, China
Chinese nuclear bombers. Chinese hypersonic missiles. Chinese carrier killer missiles. Chinese cyberattacks. Chinese anti-satellite weaponry. Chinese militarization of the South China Sea. Chinese Huawei spying. Continue reading
Whistleblower: Trump administration overruled dozens of security clearance denials
House Oversight Committee says it will swiftly begin authorizing subpoenas to probe concerns
A White House whistleblower says the Trump administration cast aside “the best interest of national security” when it overturned dozens of security clearance application denials made by career officials. Continue reading
The making of a monster: We’re all lab rats in the government’s secret experiments
The U.S. government, in its pursuit of so-called monsters, has itself become a monster. Continue reading
Hope for Ukrainians, at last
Finally, it appears that there is realistic hope for an end to the brutal, far-right, regime that U.S. President Barack Obama, through his chief agent on Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, had imposed upon Ukraine, by means of an extraordinarily violent coup in February 2014, which replaced Ukraine’s democratically elected sitting president. Continue reading
Don’t spy for me, Argentina
When an incompetent US president hires as his “special envoy” for regime change in Venezuela the very same buffoon who fumbled his way into helping to expose the Iran-Contra scandal, one can expect anything. Continue reading
Media blackout as Israel’s largest banks pay over $1 billion in fines for US tax evasion schemes
Similar revelations about other banks and offshore tax-evasion schemes—such as those contained in the Panama Papers—led to global protests and even the resignations of some world leaders.
WASHINGTON—Israel’s three largest banks—Hapoalim Bank, Leumi Bank and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank—have all been ordered to pay record fines, which collectively are set to total over $1 billion, to the U.S. government after the banks were found to have actively colluded with thousands of wealthy Americans in massive tax-evasion schemes. Continue reading
Marty Gottesfeld: Another whistleblower in solitary confinement
Last year, I wrote about a whistleblower from New England who took direct action to save a child’s life and who paid for it with his freedom. Marty Gottesfeld is now serving 10 years in prison for trying to save Justina Pelletier from abuse at the hands of her doctors at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Continue reading
Trump’s CIA now unbound and back to its traditional hijinks
Under the directorship of torture and black site maven Gina Haspel, Donald Trump’s Central Intelligence Agency has returned to its traditional roots of conducting “black bag” operations and disrupting electrical grids through cyber-attacks. Continue reading
Trump is the “Manchurian Candidate’-turned-president
Forget Russian oligarchs for the time being. Donald Trump and his family appear to have been co-opted by a standard Chinese intelligence operation—both mainland and Taiwanese—that uses overseas Chinese, shady dummy corporations, prostitution and blackmail, and political influence peddling to influence foreign governments. Continue reading
How US sanctions are hurting Iran: A firsthand report
With a recent delegation to Iran, we experienced first-hand the legendary Iranian hospitality. Iranians are particularly thrilled to meet Americans, but as we discovered, our government’s policies are hurting the very people who want to be our friends. Continue reading
NY Times acknowledges Venezuela opposition as cause of aid fire, echoing initial reports by alternative press
While independent outlets have made headway in challenging government narratives, such outlets are often maligned by influential mainstream outlets for reports that question the official story—at least until the MSM decides to get on board and question that story themselves.
CARACAS, Venezuela—The international outrage generated by images of U.S.-donated “humanitarian” aid on fire at a Colombian-Venezuelan border crossing last month inspired a frenzied call for Venezuelan regime change from top U.S. politicians and media outlets once the blaze was promptly blamed on the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro. Continue reading
‘Lights out!’ Did Trump and his neocons recycle Bush-era plan to knock out Venezuela’s power grid?
Even as the Venezuelan government blamed the power outage on U.S.-led ‘sabotage,’ the U.S. has long had a plan on the books for targeting the civilian power grid of adversarial nations.
CARACAS, Venezuela—For nearly a week, much of Venezuela has been without power, bringing the country’s embattled economy to a near standstill. The outage saw U.S. officials and politicians blame the Venezuelan government for the crisis while officials in Caracas accused the U.S. of conducting “sabotage” and launching cyberattacks that targeted its civilian power grid as well as of employing saboteurs within Venezuela. Continue reading
The downside of the world’s love affair with shrimp
Shrimp was once considered a treat for special occasions, but now it is a frequent mealtime staple. And that is not necessarily so good. Continue reading
Plan for wheelchair-accessible cells at Gitmo Paint ‘chilling picture’ of detainees held without trial for rest of their lives
Newly-revealed plans for expanding the Guantanamo Bay prison confirm that the future of the facility focuses on keeping detainees there well into old age—and likely for the rest of their lives. Continue reading
From Room 101 the prisoner says no to Big Brother
Whenever I visit Julian Assange, we meet in a room he knows too well. There is a bare table and pictures of Ecuador on the walls. There is a bookcase where the books never change. The curtains are always drawn and there is no natural light. The air is still and fetid. Continue reading
Robert Fisk exposes Israel’s hidden role in the brewing India-Pakistan conflict
Israel’s export of Zionist nationalism and neocolonialism—and the accompanying oppression that in practice actually helps to create many of the very terrorist groups they fight against—is just as dangerous as its export of arms.
LONDON—Well-known British journalist Robert Fisk recently wrote a very telling and troubling article in The Independent regarding the outsized role of the state of Israel in the burgeoning tensions between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers. The story—despite its importance, given the looming threat of nuclear war between the two countries—was largely overlooked by the international media. Continue reading
Former CIA whistleblower: Yes, even the US Post Office is spying on you
The Mail Cover Program allows your mailman to photograph and send to federal law enforcement organizations the front and back of every piece of mail the Post Office processes. It also retains the information digitally and provides it to any government agency that wants it—without a warrant.
You may remember that last year some nut was arrested for mailing bombs to prominent Democrats, media outlets, and opponents of Donald Trump. Less than a week after the bombs went out, a suspect was arrested. Almost immediately, video turned up of him at a Trump rally, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and chanting for the camera. He was soon tried, convicted, and jailed. Continue reading
Military Intervention and Mercenaries, Inc. (MIAMI)
The city of Miami, Florida, may have started out as a retirement mecca for winter-worn pensioners from northern climes. However, after the beginning of the Cold War and US military and Central Intelligence Agency intervention in Guatemala, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Guyana, the Bahamas, and other Western Hemisphere nations, Miami became a refuge for exiled wealthy businessmen escaping populist revolutions and elections in South and Central America, and spies. The retirement and vacation capital of the United States quickly became the “Tropical Casablanca.” Continue reading
Gallup finds Americans have been very deceived regarding United States’ image around the world
Gallup issued on February 28 its “2019 Rating World Leaders” report, subtitled “The US vs. Germany, China and Russia,” and said, “The world still frowned on US leadership more than the leadership of any other country asked about in 2018.” All four of the countries’ leaderships received approval-ratings from people worldwide in only the 30-39% range, and this low score for the US leadership (which was approved by merely 31% of people sampled worldwide during 2018) represented an enormous decline for the United States, which during the Obama years had received scores ranging from 41% to 49% approval. However, a Gallup report which had been issued only three days earlier, on February 25, indicated that the American people are blissfully ignorant of any of this reality, and instead believe that the global approval-rating of the United States itself is high and is rising, not, as it actually is, low and declining. Continue reading
Non-military federal agencies under Trump expand already enormous arsenals
Given that during the height of the Iraq War the Army used around 6 million rounds per month, with its planned purchase of 1.6 billion rounds, DHS would have ammo left over after matching the Army’s peak daily outpouring of hot lead for two solid decades.
WASHINGTON—The massive purchases of ammo and weapons by non-military federal agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA), that first began under the Obama administration has continued unabated under the Trump administration, while receiving less media coverage. Continue reading
More VIP heads to roll in Chinese massage parlor sting
Expect more VIP heads to roll in Florida’s statewide crackdown on a chain of “day spas” that provided their male clientele with sexual gratification instead of body massages. The arrest of hundreds of men, including three wealthy retirees living on Florida’s “Treasure Coast,” followed quickly on the heels of a decision by U.S. Judge Kenneth Marra of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami that the 2007 non-prosecution agreement plea deal agreed to by then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafaña, Palm Beach County state’s attorney Barry Krischer, and attorneys for Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was “illegal.” Donald Trump appointed Acosta as his secretary of labor, a position over which Acosta is responsible for identifying breeches of federal law against human trafficking, including sexual exploitation of foreign or domestic laborers. Continue reading
