Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress keep crowing about the economy, when in reality Trumponomics has been a disaster. Continue reading
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When the journalists ganged up on Assange, they ganged up on themselves
Journalists did not appreciate the implications for themselves of the contrived and false indictment of Julian Assange by a corrupt US government. It was obvious to a few of us that the indictment by the US government, a government constrained by the First Amendment, of a foreign national for publishing leaked material, an action never before regarded as espionage or a crime, was the beginning of the end of any Western government ever again being held accountable by a free press. Continue reading
The same old scare tactic about socialism
I keep hearing a lot about “socialism” these days, mainly from Donald Trump and Fox News, trying to scare Americans about initiatives like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal child care, free public higher education, and higher taxes on the super-wealthy to pay for these. Continue reading
A Father’s Day gift for myself: Activism
My 2-year old will barely be the age I am now when the climate catastrophe comes, and that realization is taking a toll.
News about climate change has been so spooky for so long that it can feel like background noise. We find a way to carry on like normal, even when the news is disquieting. Continue reading
Morgan Library & Hudson Yards: Two NYC landmarks built off the misery of others
I clearly love everything about books—so imagine my delight when someone told me about the historic Morgan Library in midtown Manhattan. I was there in a flash. And it was awesomely beautiful too. Just imagine a vaulted sanctuary such as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel—only also lined with tiers and tiers of bookcases stuffed with rare and beautiful leather-bound books containing all the wisdom of the ages. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” I was in hog heaven! Continue reading
Election 2016 manipulation involved same players as 9/11
A growing collection of evidence indicates that three nations directly involved in coordinating the planning and carrying out of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States—Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—were also jointly involved in “hacking” the 2016 U.S. presidential election to bring about Donald Trump’s victory. The January 11, 2017 meeting in Seychelles—involving Blackwater founder Erik Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and top officials of UAE, Saudi, and Israeli intelligence—represented a de facto after-action overview of the 2016 election interference that covered successes of the operation. Continue reading
My abortion
Her face is like an image in a photograph, as clear today as it was years ago when I first saw her. The little girl, named Amber, was among my best friend J’s social work, foster care caseload. And I wanted to adopt her. Continue reading
What is so rare as a (fake news) day in June?
While the continued mental assault on what is left of public consciousness still features the idiotic fiction of Russiagate, or how the evil Putin arranged to trash our great American democracy and defeat holy mother Hillary on behalf of cursed father Donald, the month of June offered not one but two major fictional treatments of historic reality to further reduce innocent minds to enslaved mentalities. The fables of D-Day, celebrated every year in glorification of a war actually won by the Soviet Union but taught as America’s gift to the global marketplace, and the unholy terror alleged by evil China in the infamous Tiananmen uprising treated here as a story worthy of creation by Disney, Spielberg, Mother Goose and Ronald Reagan combined. Continue reading
The force that is ending freedom is lies
Every empire is a dictatorship. No nation can be a democracy that’s either heading an empire, or a vassal-state of one. Obviously, in order to be a vassal-state within an empire, that nation is dictated-to by the nation of which it is a colony. However, even the domestic inhabitants of the colonizing nation cannot be free and living in a democracy, because their services are needed abroad in order to impose the occupying force upon the colony or vassal-nation. This is an important burden upon the ‘citizens’ or actually the subjects of the imperial nation. Furthermore, they need to finance, via their taxes, this occupying force abroad, to a sufficient extent so as to subdue any resistance by the residents in any colony. Every empire is imposed, none is really voluntary. Conquest creates an empire, and the constant application of force maintains it. Every empire is a dictatorship, not only upon its foreign populations (which goes without saying, because otherwise there can’t be any empire), but upon its domestic ones too, upon its own subjects. Continue reading
Britain is out of control
One of the rallying cries of the Brexit movement, whose supporters want Britain to leave the European Union, is the slogan “Let’s Take Back Control”—meaning, in the words of The Atlantic magazine, they imagine that by quitting Europe “they would be returning power from Brussels back to lawmakers in Westminster and, by extension, to the British people themselves.” The “Vote Leave” group declared “We’ve lost control of trade, human rights, and migration” and there was an intensive and most misleading campaign waged to encourage the British people to believe that they had endured decades of unproductive cringing subservience to the EU. Continue reading
If we took control from the fascists, would we allow fascists free speech?
If our leaders were not fascists, and we didn’t have a fascist press, all inside a fascist system, perhaps an average citizen could see more distinctly what is happening, rather than missing the forest for the trees as so many do. Continue reading
D-Day after 75 years
Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. Once again the event is celebrated by demonization of National Socialist Germany and glorification of America’s greatness in winning the war. Continue reading
You’re under arrest: How the police state muzzles our right to speak truth to power
What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power. Continue reading
Why the USA is NOT about to attack Iran
Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, professor extraordinaire of Iran, said it best when asked on Al Jazeera if the USA was going to attack Iran. He stated something so obvious that you would think western journalists would have already come to this realization, that “as long as the USA is sending its military to the Persian Gulf they are not about to attack Iran. It is when the USA starts to pull it forces out is when we should start to be worried.” Continue reading
Facing the facts: Israel cannot escape ICC jurisdiction
The chief military advocate general of the Israeli army, Sharon Afek, and the US Department of Defense general counsel, Paul Ney, shared a platform at the ‘International Conference on the Law of Armed Conflict’, which took place in Herzliya, Israel between May 28-30. Continue reading
Travel to Cuba falls victim to John Bolton’s wrath
John Bolton hates the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, calling them the “troika of tyranny” and the “three stooges of socialism,” and is determined to use his time as national security advisor to eliminate the vestiges of socialism in our hemisphere. He has openly stated that the 1823 Monroe Doctrine is “alive and well,” conveying that the United States will dictate the terms of governance in the Western Hemisphere, by military force if necessary. Furious that he has been unable to successfully orchestrate a coup in Venezuela, Bolton is now lashing out at Cuba, explicitly punishing the nation for its support of Venezuelan President Maduro. The travel restrictions announced on June 4 represent another page from Bolton’s “regime change” playbook. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: How to protest Trump
If the British really oppose Trump’s policies they should dump their own government, which backs Washington to the hilt—and then they should apologize to the world for Britain’s crimes. Continue reading
Enough hesitation, House, impeach
Ben Franklin would tell Trump to go fly a kite.
Like Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin is one of those great Americans to whom sparkling aphorisms are attributed that may or may not be true. The Internet has only made matters worse. Continue reading
The gig is up
Uber just filed its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. Although it lost $1bn, investors may still do well because the losses appear to be declining. Continue reading
If corporations have rights, so does nature
A whopping 61 percent of Toledo’s voters said ‘yes’ to recognizing legally enforceable rights for the natural world.
From the very start of our nation, the most popular forum for debating and shaping our democratic rights was not stately legislative halls, but rowdy beer halls. Continue reading
Enough. Wake Up, sheeple!
Why people think reality is a conspiracy.
George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “We are more gullible and superstitious today than we were in the Middle Ages, and an example of modern credulity is the widespread belief that the Earth is round. The average man can advance not a single reason for thinking that the Earth is round. He merely swallows this theory because there is something about it that appeals to the twentieth century mentality.” Continue reading
US sanctions are economic terrorism
Security Council members alone may legally impose sanctions on nations, entities or individuals. Continue reading
Instead of a US peace plan for the Middle East, how about a US peace plan for the US?
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo describes the Trump administration’s plan for peace between Israel and Palestinian Arabs as “unexecutable.” President Trump says Pompeo “may be right.” Continue reading
What happens after the massive demonstrations in every city?
As society continues to unravel, there will be more and more massive demonstrations in major cities over issues such as the never-ending wars, environmental catastrophes, lack of jobs, and inadequate healthcare. These increasing protests will occur when large numbers of people realize that our elected leaders only represent the one percent who financially help get them elected and re-elected. Our currently elected leaders are not public servants who represent us, the 99 percent. Continue reading
My (not so) excellent adventure with propaganda at the United Nations in NYC
How many times have you been told straight-up lies to your face? Been told them so many times that you actually start to believe them? “Yes, Santa Claus will bring you lots of presents down the chimney, kid. Now shut up and put out those damn cookies and milk.” Continue reading
Trump, Kushner, and Barr putting intelligence sources’ lives in jeopardy
U.S. and allied intelligence agencies are concerned that Donald Trump and his closest White House advisers, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have and are revealing sensitive diplomatic and intelligence information gleaned by U.S. intelligence personnel from foreign sources to hostile parties. Continue reading
Controversy overshadows Trump’s visit to Britain
US president faces ‘a carnival of protest’ and wrath of British politicians
Britain’s fortunes are inextricably entwined with those of the mighty United States. They will be even more so after the UK leaves the European Union in respect to a coveted US-UK trade deal as well as heightened diplomatic and military cooperation. Continue reading
Why thousands are getting hit with unexpected medical bills
Hardly a week goes by without another story in the media covering a family somewhere in America dealing with an outrageous medical bill. Yet, in more and more cases, these families don’t have junk insurance, or lack coverage altogether. Indeed, they have what Americans would consider decent coverage, either through their employer or an Affordable Care Act marketplace. They also followed, or so they thought, the rules of their insurance policy requiring them to seek care inside their provider network. Yet, they are slapped with surprise bills, and often threatened by bankruptcy. Continue reading
If Congress has no mojo to govern, let’s make it a part-time job
If the American public needs any further evidence that the US Congress is unable to function as an operating legislative branch of the federal government in the ‘pursuit of happiness’ or to ‘promote the general welfare,’ look no further than Congress’s most recent public disapproval rating of 69%. This is of course nothing new as Congress has been in ill repute with the American public for decades—and no one seems to know what to do about it. Continue reading
Identity groups = market shares = class division
The divide and conquer tactics practiced by minority ruling powers are simply age-old class divisions forced on their majority subjects, but they have become more dangerous as imperial capitalism has entered a most critical period threatening more destruction than ever before. At a time when real global democracy is both more possible and necessary than ever, humanity is split into more sub-divisions than ever, with economic stratification disguised by group identity labels, most totally and a-scientifically as separate races. That is the way authority wants it and why it must be overcome before capitalism’s self-destructive roots become total reality and unity is finally achieved only to experience devastation with the belated realization that it is happening to all of us and not just some of us. Continue reading
The bankers’ ‘power revolution’: How the government got shackled by debt
The U.S. federal debt has more than doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, shooting up from $9.4 trillion in mid-2008 to over $22 trillion in April 2019. The debt is never paid off. The government just keeps paying the interest on it, and interest rates are rising. Continue reading
US billionaire tries to nullify Soviet role in WWII victory
Posted on June 11, 2019 by Eric Zuesse
On May 23, Russia’s RT headlined “Soviet Union oddly missing from US-made coin ‘saluting’ WWII Allies” and displayed a private firm’s, the Bradford Exchange’s, “commemorative” “WWII 75th Anniversary 24K Gold-Plated gold-plated” coin, which is being marketed as an ‘investment’, and which on one of its sides shows US Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and on the opposite side shows the flags of US, Britain, and France. Continue reading →