The annual confab of the captains of global industry, finance, and wealth is underway in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. Continue reading
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From the barracks to the courtroom: US ‘lawfare’ in action
Somewhere along the line in recent history, some US think tank in the employ of the Central Intelligence Agency must have come up with the idea that overthrowing governments in Latin America by military coups came with bad optics for the coup plotters. Often, democratically-elected Latin American leaders were demonized by a cabal of military officers who left their barracks and laid siege to the presidential palaces. After taking control of the national radio stations, these generals would announce they had seized control of the government to “protect” the people from “communism” or some other concocted bogeyman. Continue reading
Call for global ban as poll shows overwhelming public opposition to ‘horrifying’ killer robots
Weapons that require no input from humans in selecting and killing targets undermine "the right to life and other human rights," critics say
World leaders have shown little leadership in moving to ban autonomous weapons that would require no human involvement when selecting and killing targets, but a new survey shows that the global population overwhelmingly opposes the development of such “killer robots.” Continue reading
High-profile human rights groups fail to condemn unlawful US mistreatment of Marzieh Hashimi
The silence of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, and other high-profile human rights groups over Mazieh’s unlawful arrest, detention and abusive treatment by the FBI is deafening. Continue reading
Tax dollars can buy happiness
The deeper meaning of hygge—and why citizens of Denmark are so much happier than Americans
Corporatists castigated two lawmakers in recent weeks for daring to offer economic Xanax prescriptions to cure rampant American economic anxiety. Continue reading
Trump’s assault on the rule of law
The “rule of law” distinguishes democracies from dictatorships. It’s based on three fundamental principles. Trump is violating every one of them. Continue reading
Indefinite detention uncharged and untried a crime against humanity
These are troubled times. Rule of law protections don’t help. The US does whatever it pleases, operating by its own rules, inflicting harm on nations, groups and individuals, including its own citizens. Continue reading
Traditional 2019 State of the Union address fraught with security dangers
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
The deep-pocket push to deep-six public schools
The backstory to the showdown in Los Angeles between teachers and billionaires
Back during the 1960s and 1970s, in cities, suburbs, and small towns across the United States, teacher strikes made headlines on a fairly regular basis. Teachers in those years had a variety of reasons for walking out. They struck for the right to bargain. They struck for decent pay and benefits. They struck for professional dignity. Continue reading
The indignity of work without pay
Forty percent of conservative Republicans view the government shutdown as inconsequential
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
AI wants to reprogram you
Driverless cars cost jobs and threaten pedestrians. Investors' advice? Just get out of the way!
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
Martin Luther King Day and the unspeakable
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
JFK, MLK, Bobby & Leonard: Bad things happen when you color outside the lines
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
Would Trump have come after my family for being illegal?
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
The National Security Agency is a criminal organization
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
Another day, another disaster. And another, and another . . .
It’s as if the country’s being run by Beetlejuice.
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
The danger within: Border Patrol Is turning America Into a Constitution-free zone
How far would you really go to secure the nation’s borders against illegal aliens? Continue reading
Deer disease poses risks to general public, not just hunters
If you live in an urban area, should you be concerned about the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in U.S. deer herds? Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Kamala Harris destroyed black lives
Harris has spent her career locking up black and brown people. She should not be allowed to shake hands, kiss babies or walk into black churches without being taken to task. Continue reading
Trump regime upping the stakes in Venezuela
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 moral travesty of Israel seeking Arab, Iranian money for its alleged Nakba
The game is afoot. Israel, believe it or not, is demanding that seven Arab countries and Iran pay $250 billion as compensation for what it claims was the forceful exodus of Jews from Arab countries during the late 1940s. Continue reading
The government shutdown expands the ranks of ‘underwater nation’
Unemployment is low, but federal employees are lining up at food banks. They aren’t alone.
As the government shutdown drags on, the image of federal workers lining up at food pantries has dramatized just how many workers live financially close to the edge. Continue reading
Johan Galtung, a pioneer: Conceptualizing peace journalism
TRANSCEND Media Service was founded by Johan Galtung, the visionary, and me, the editor, in 2008. It is a medium to present peace journalism-oriented views, news and analyses in written or video format, being both a service to other media and a medium in its own right. The section Peace Journalism Perspective is inspired by a solution orientation, trying to identify the conflicts underlying the violence—direct, cultural and/or structural—so rampant in the world. And to search for a way out, a solution, itself in search of agency. The basic point about peace journalism is multi-truth, multi-angle reporting, with an inspiring, positive solution-orientation. Continue reading
The US mainstream media prefer confrontation to cooperation
The Washington Post is a noisily anti-Russian newspaper which every weekday by email produces for subscribers (of whom I am one) the Daily 202 (“Power Post—Intelligence for Leaders”) which covers US politics, a little international stuff, and a section called “There’s a Bear in the Woods” aimed at denigrating, belittling and generally insulting Russia. Continue reading
The big economic switcheroo
The biggest untold story about how we pay for government involves a big switcheroo by America’s wealthy. Continue reading
Whatever your hands find to do
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 hidden structure of U.S. empire
My father was a doctor in the British Royal Navy, and I grew up traveling by troop-ship between the last outposts of the British Empire—Trincomalee, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, Aden, Singapore—and living in and around naval dockyards in England and Scotland. Continue reading
‘State-of-the-art weaponry’ turns out to be crickets
What was purported by the Trump administration to have been widespread illnesses of US diplomats in Cuba resulting from the use—by some nefarious state actor—of advanced acoustic warfare weaponry, turned out to be caused by the mating calls of crickets. In response to accusations that a sonic weapon was targeting US personnel in Cuba, the Trump administration withdrew half of its staff from the US embassy in Havana and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington, DC. During 2017, some 26 US diplomats complained of nausea, headaches, vision problems, cognitive disorders, and other maladies brought about by a high-pitched drone sound they experienced at their homes and hotels. Continue reading
The WSJ on US war plans against Iran
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
Democratic leaders failed their first big test on climate
Kicking the can down the road appears to be a bipartisan sport in Washington.
The science on climate change is clear: All countries desperately need to restructure fossil fuels out of their economies. Continue reading
The Trump dictatorship
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
Pompeo turns reality upside down
Posted on January 24, 2019 by Philip M. Giraldi
The speech made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the American University in Cairo on January 10 deserves more attention than it has received from the US media. In it, Pompeo reveals his own peculiar vision of what is taking place in the Middle East, to include the impact of his own personal religiosity, and his belief that Washington’s proper role in the region is to act as “a force for good.” The extent to which the secretary of state was speaking for himself was not completely clear, but the text of the presentation was posted on the State Department website without any qualification, so one has to assume that Pompeo was representing White House policy. Continue reading →