Trump’s ‘regime change’ bonanza

The Trump administration, now rife with regime change advocates and neocon firebrands like John Bolton as national security adviser, Elliott Abrams as the “special envoy” for Venezuela, as well as Tea Party/neocon hybrid Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, is backing regime changes in not less than five countries. The chief champion for regime change in Vice President Mike Pence, who has toured Latin America looking for allies for the neocon geopolitical cause. Most of Trump’s regime change targets are in Latin America. Continue reading

Freedom Rider: Trump, Democrats, and international fascists attack Venezuela

Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government has been joined by fellow fascists around the world, including most of the Democratic Party. Continue reading

People who care about democracy don’t plot coups abroad

Do we think people who armed death squads and started wars really want to 'bring democracy' to Venezuela?

For some months now, Venezuela’s socialist government has lurched through a series of escalating crises—hyperinflation, mass protests, political violence—while both the government and its opposition have flirted with authoritarianism. Continue reading

The attempted assassination of Sam Iserbyt?

Only half of Portland murders solved under Police Chief Michael Sauschuck

Today, former Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement for the US Department of Education Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt will testify against Governor Janet Mills’ nomination of Michael Sauschuck for the position of Maine State Public Safety Commissioner. Continue reading

Venezuela: None of our business

On January 23, the President of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Juan Guaido, was sworn in as “interim president.” In what was presumably a pre-coordinated move, Guaido’s administration was quickly recognized by the governments of the United States, Canada, and several countries in Latin America. Continue reading

The US Senate just quietly advanced a free speech busting anti-BDS bill

WASHINGTON—In an evening vote that garnered essentially no national media coverage, the U.S. Senate voted last night to advance the “Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019” – sometimes called the “anti-BDS bill” for its component that would allow state and local governments to punish companies or individuals who support the non-violent Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement aimed at promoting Palestinian rights and ending Israeli apartheid and military occupation of the West Bank. The bill was, notably, numbered S.1 — the Senate’s first legislative act of its 2019-20 session. Continue reading

Howard Schultz, a “greenwasher” of tainted coffee beans

Howard Schultz, the billionaire founder of Starbuck’s, the over-priced coffee chain that enthralls some deluded progressives by requiring them to speak a bastardized version of Esperanto when ordering a cup of coffee, believes he should be the president of the United States. As if the country can withstand another callous billionaire born in New York City in the White House, Schultz, who is flogging a book, revealed that he is considering an independent run for the presidency in 2020. Many political observers believe that Schultz, like Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2016, will siphon votes from Democrats and, thus, ensure a second term for Donald Trump. Continue reading

Brits and the Holocaust

The British and Jewish press reported Monday that a poll released to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day found that “1 in 20 British adults does not believe the Holocaust happened and 12% think the scale of the genocide has been exaggerated.” Continue reading

Another billionaire presidential candidate who doesn’t get it

It’s human nature to be clueless about those with less privilege than you—which for billionaires includes nearly everyone.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz just announced he may run for president as an independent centrist candidate in 2020. Continue reading

Why the USA starves Haitians to death: Inside the national security state

I began to learn about Haiti long ago when I interviewed President Aristide, and he told me that thousands of Haitians were being murdered by assassins paid by the CIA. Haiti has long been controlled by the USA, since the slave revolt in Haiti overthrew the French. Continue reading

Privatization is at the core of facsism

Privatizations are increasingly fashionable, such as in Greece, Ukraine, the U.S., and UK—and privatizations are a central feature of fascism. Continue reading

‘Absolutely unconscionable’: Trump EPA refuses to limit toxic chemicals that contaminate drinking water of millions

"It's time for state governments and Congress to step up, since it's obvious we can't rely on Andrew Wheeler and Trump's EPA to protect us."

In a decision deemed by critics unsurprising but also “absolutely unconscionable,” the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reportedly plans to refrain from regulating a pair of toxic chemicals linked to kidney and testicular cancer, even though they are contaminating millions of Americans’ drinking water. Continue reading

Venezuelan Spring?

Consistent rubbish appearing on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page is enough to give extremist right-wing propaganda a bad name. Continue reading

Public workers’ trump

Air traffic controllers hold the trump card (pardon the expression) in upcoming negotiations between Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over border security. Continue reading

The financial secret behind Germany’s green energy revolution

The most profitable and efficient way for national and local governments to finance public infrastructure and development is with their own banks

The “Green New Deal” endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D.-N.Y., and more than 40 other House members has been criticized as imposing a too-heavy burden on the rich and upper-middle-class taxpayers who will have to pay for it. However, taxing the rich is not what the Green New Deal resolution proposes. It says funding would come primarily from certain public agencies, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and “a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks.” Continue reading

A coup by any other name

In an earlier article, I asked when is a coup not one? A rose is a rose is a rose, not something else. Continue reading

Venezuela needs help not foreign meddling

‘Aren’t I lucky to be Canadian, we get to choose other countries’ leaders,” was a tongue-in-cheek post on social media which says it all. Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Columbia were among the first to hang on to Washington’s coat-tails with its anointing of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guado to temporarily replace President Nicolas Maduro. And Guado wasted no time in swearing himself into office. Continue reading

The United States is at it again: Compiling an enemies list

Many American still long for the good old days when men were still manly and President George W. Bush was able to announce that there was a “new sheriff in town” pledged to wipe terrorism from the face of the earth. “You’re either with us or against us,” he growled and he backed up his warning of lethal retribution with an enemies list that he called the “axis of evil.” Continue reading

The faces behind the wall: My experience at the US-Mexico border

Nothing prepares you for Juarez, Mexico. The human grief, but also the resilience of the human spirit that I have witnessed at the US-Mexico border compels morally-guided solutions, certainly not walls. Continue reading

Trump recognition of rival Venezuelan government sets a dangerous new precedent

The Trump administration’s January 23 recognition of Venezuela’s National Assembly leader, Juan Guaidó, as the president of Venezuela, in opposition to the “de facto” and “de jure” president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, threatens an avalanche of nations recognizing leaders of various political factions in countries around the world as legitimate governments. In reaction to Trump’s move, Maduro severed diplomatic relations with Washington and ordered all US embassy personnel in Caracas to leave the country within 72-hours. Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly declared a caretaker government as a rival to the Maduro government with Guaidó as the interim president. Continue reading

Marzieh Hashemi released

On January 13, Press TV journalist/anchor Marzieh Hashemi, an Iranian/American, was unlawfully arrested and detained by the FBI—in the US from Tehran to visit family members. Continue reading

The Donald’s bedtime storybook: First stop, Venezuela, next stop Iran

The attempted coup in Venezuela looks like it might be the brainchild of Zalmay Khalilzad, now back in the American jihad driver’s seat. ZKh’s counterinsurgency thoughts in The Envoy about Iran fit the bill. Continue reading

An unholy alliance: The use of terrorism according to John Bolton

John Bolton is carefully uniting an unholy alliance of terrorist groups who all share one goal: opposition to Iran.

In 1978, President Carter’s national security advisor, Zbignew Brzezinski, decided to use the Muslim Brotherhood against the Soviets, and sent Arab combatants to support the Afghan opposition against the Communist regime. Responding to a call for help from the Afghan government, the Red Army became bogged down in an unwinnable conflict. Continue reading

The transgender ban is about bigotry and distraction

Trump's attacking service members to provoke the left, throw red meat to his base, and distract the rest from things like the shutdown.

The Supreme Court just paved the way for Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military to move ahead, at least pending other court challenges. The ban will harm the military and help no one, while doing nothing to address the nation’s real problems. Continue reading

Washington has appointed a president for Venezuela

After listening since 2016 to the American presstitutes complain, without providing a mere scrap of evidence, of Russia meddling in US elections, a person would think that the last thing Washington would do would be to meddle in other countries’ elections. Continue reading

Uncle Sam wants your DNA: The FBI’s diabolical plan to create a nation of suspects

Uncle Sam wants you. Continue reading

US blunders have made Russia the global trade pivot

The year 2019 had barely begun before news emerged that six Russian sailors were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Benin. It was perhaps a foretaste of risks to come. As nations reel from deteriorating economic conditions, instances of piracy and other forms of supply chain disruptions are bound to increase. Continue reading

False ‘victories’: Is the PA using the ‘State of Palestine’ to remain in power?

The ‘State of Palestine’ has officially been handed the chairmanship of the G-77, the United Nations largest block. This is particularly significant considering the relentless Israeli-American plotting to torpedo Palestine’s push for greater international recognition and legitimacy. Continue reading

We don’t need a new deal; we need a whole new deck

The gap between the earth’s wardens of wealth and the nearly eight billion humans under their control has grown wider and more dangerous but is beginning to be understood by some as a systemic problem and not simply a matter of evil leaders and villainous followers. When people see and feel their futures ranging from problematic at best to non-existent at worst, we get the resultant turmoil and changes taking place in nations moving in many directions at once but all of them against established power over things as they are. Continue reading

Mike Pence calls for coup d’état in Venezuela

Since Hugo Chavez established Bolivarian social democracy in Venezuela, a vibrant system, a model for other nations, the US plotted to replace it with fascist tyranny. Continue reading

Government shutdown to cause the suffering of the public is a violation of federal anti-terrorism law

18 U.S. Code § 2331 specifically states that a national of the United States who commits an act dangerous to human life to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion is liable to be charged for violating federal domestic terrorism laws. Continue reading

Trump puts the white in the red, white and blue

WASHINGTON, DC—As the old saying goes, putting a shoe in an oven don’t make it a biscuit. Continue reading