Bipartisan hardliners in Washington consider all areas occupied by Pentagon forces virtual US territory, subject to its will under its rules, defying the sovereign rights of nations, fundamental international law, and its own Constitution. Continue reading
How does one explain Canada’s contradictory foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel? Continue reading
Privatization. Privatization. Privatization. It’s all you hear from Republicans. But what does it actually mean? Continue reading
On Tuesday, Time magazine announced its annual Person of the Year Award, honoring what it called “Guardians . . . who have taken great risks in pursuit of greater truths.” Continue reading
The US military is the most respected institution by the American people. According to investigations by the inspector general of the US Department of Defense—investigations which were based on inspections of only portions of the department’s financial records, not of all of them, and so the amount is incomplete—that Department had disappeared at least $21 trillion of funds from US taxpayers during the 18-year period 1998-2015. The US population, during that period, was around 300 million people; so, at a bare minimum, approximately $70,000 was being stolen (or otherwise disappeared at the US Defense Department) from each American during that time. However, $10 in 1998 was worth $14.54 in 2015; so, considering inflation, each American was robbed, during that period, of at least around $90,000, by the most respected institution. The average US household or “family” has 2.54 people. So, the average US household lost AT LEAST around $223,000, from thefts (or ‘lost money’) by the US military, during 1998-2015. (This fact has never been published before, because this calculation has never before been done; the loss to individual persons and families hasn’t previously been calculated.) Continue reading
A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists accuses Trump’s Interior Department of “relentless attacks on science ranging from suppressing and sidelining the work of the department’s scientists to systematically refusing to act on climate change.” Continue reading
The world order has already changed. China has a larger and more powerful industrial and manufacturing based economy than the US, and China’s potential domestic consumer market is four times larger than that of the US. As economies are consumer based, China’s potential is an economy four times larger than that of the US. Continue reading
“I am a Tariff Man,” Trump tweeted last week. “When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. . . . We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.” Continue reading
Author, historian, former State Department official-turned sharp critic of Washington’s destructive imperial agenda William Blum passed away on December 9 at age 85. Continue reading
Trump and his neocons have withdrawn from so many international organizations and agreements that his foreign policy has earned a shameful nickname: “the Withdrawal Doctrine.” Continue reading
I’ve been a postal clerk for 23 years, serving my customers in a public post office in Gresham, Oregon. Continue reading
We should have told them to be more specific. When President Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress called their massive tax overhaul last year the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” most of us assumed the jobs would be in the United States. Continue reading
In the Trumputin world of organized crime, Michael Cohen has committed the ultimate betrayal: he’s helped Robert Mueller prove beyond doubt that don Putin in the Kremlin put his very own bagman into the White House. Continue reading
On November 29, Gallup headlined “Democrats Lead Surge in Belief U.S. Should Be World Leader” and reported, “Three-fourths (75%) of Americans today think the United States has ‘a special responsibility to be the leading nation in world affairs,’ up from 66% in 2010. The surge is driven by Democrats, whose belief in this idea has increased from 61% eight years ago to 81% now.” This finding comes even after the lie-based and catastrophic U.S. invasions of Iraq in 2003, and of Libya in 2011 (and of so many others, such as Afghanistan, where the U.S. and Sauds created the Taliban in 1979). Continue reading
The Ukraine Freedom Support Act (UFSA) of 2014 authorized US lethal and non-lethal aid to Kiev. Continue reading
We are a nation that was founded in opposition to hereditary rule. The founders rejected the notion of a king and embraced the principle that there were to be no royal families who generation after generation governed on the assumption of divine right. Continue reading
On November 28, sixty-three U.S. senators voted in favor of holding a floor debate on a resolution calling for an end to direct U.S. Armed Forces involvement in the Saudi-UAE coalition-led war on Yemen. Describing the vote as a rebuke to Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration, AP reported on Senate dissatisfaction over the administration’s response to Saudi Arabia’s brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi last month. Continue reading
Donald Trump’s “America first” economic nationalism is finally crashing into the reality of America’s shareholder-first global capitalism. Continue reading
On the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. military installations in the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, Donald Trump marked the occasion by tweeting: “FAKE NEWS—THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” Trump’s tweet was sent at 10:08 pm on December 6. At around 10:00 pm on December 6, a man with a southern accent phoned the CNN bureau in New York and warned it that five bombs had been placed in the building. “CNN Tonight,” which was broadcasting live, was forced off the air and the building was evacuated. The news network was forced to rely on taped programming. Continue reading
Cancer kills. Every American knows that. Continue reading
The Trump administration has proposed that insurance plans providing drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries will no longer be forced to cover six hitherto “protected” drug classes. The classes—which include drugs for psychiatric conditions, cancer and immune diseases—are among the priciest of all drugs and account for as much as 33 percent of total outpatient drug spending under Part D of Medicare. Continue reading
Before my recent trip to Tokyo, Kawasaki and Osaka, I emailed an American friend, “Japan contrasts so sharply with chaotic and dirty Vietnam. Unlike here, almost nothing happens on Japanese sidewalks, no eating, drinking or even smoking!” Continue reading
Holy cow, it clearly sucks eggs to be a Honduran refugee in Tijuana these days. What the freak do they possibly have to look forward to? And, good grief, how I would hate to spend my short miserable life scrounging for blood diamonds in Africa right now. Or being a starving two-year-old living under the Saudi cross-hairs in Yemen? Who the freak would want to do that? Continue reading
Regularly presidents, prime ministers, congresspersons and parliamentarians worldwide negate the democratic will of their nation’s voters by refusing to support legitimate election results. Strangely, their treasonous actions continue without serious reprisal or punishment by the voter. This emboldens them. The reality of votes cast and “democracy” past does not does bode well for the people of the United Kingdom, their future as a nation or their hopeful return to sovereignty once called, “Brexit.” Continue reading
The Senate’s narrow approval of fossil fuel-defender Bernard McNamee for a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday provoked anger and dismay from climate action groups, which have demanded the Trump administration listen to scientists and the American people and end its efforts to prop up “dirty, dying, and dangerous” energy industries. Continue reading
Watching the ongoing debate between US liberal and right-wing pundits on US mainstream media, one rarely gets the impression that Washington is responsible for the unfolding crisis in Central America. Continue reading
To a nation of snowflakes, Christmas has become yet another trigger word. Continue reading
The Mueller investigation much more resembles a propaganda campaign whose goal is neither truth nor justice, but vilification of Russia in the pursuit of endless war. Continue reading
America honors its worst. Throughout his career as a House member, UN envoy, GOP National Committee chairman, ambassador to China, CIA director, vice president and president, GHW Bush was an unapologetic imperial spear carrier. Continue reading
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Nearly a decade of vexatious civil litigation in Palm Beach County court between convicted underage sex molester Jeffrey Epstein and Fort Lauderdale trial attorney, Bradley Edwards, who represented pro bono many of Epstein’s victims, concluded rapidly on December 4 after Edwards’s attorney, Jack Scarola, announced an out-of-court settlement between Epstein and Edwards. Under the terms of the agreement, termed a “surrender” by Epstein, a confidential financial settlement was reached in favor of Edwards and an apology by Epstein to Edwards for wrongly suing him in an effort to “damage his reputation” and divert attention from Epstein’s victims. The Epstein suit was designed to force Edwards to abandon Epstein’s victims, including Courtney Wild, formerly known only as “Jane Doe 1,” who was recently identified in a three-part series on the Epstein case in The Miami Herald. Continue reading
Worldwide radical egalitarianism can save the planet, the world, and our souls. We have to examine the whole world and see how it can work together in harmony like the cells and organs of a healthy living body. Instead of nations competing with nations, we can find ways to work together with cooperation and love. We each should make the same ecological footprint. It’s only fair. Continue reading
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Freedom Rider: Yellow vests show the way
Posted on December 14, 2018 by Margaret Kimberley
The yellow vests ought to be inspirations for the 99% on this side of the Atlantic ocean. Continue reading →