There is nothing dispassionate about the United States president. He loves those who lavish praise upon him and slaps back at critics and rivals, past and present. The indisputable fact that no politician can please all of the people all of the time completely escapes him. Every critique is seen as a personal attack on his performance, warranting a tongue-lashing or twitter storm in response. Continue reading
Two years ago, I was having dinner in NYC with a group of Japanese writers. Next to me was Mieko Kawakami, who’s also known as a pop singer. Since her English was very limited, we conversed mostly through another person. Seeing that my beer glass was empty, Mieko filled it. Continue reading
Yes, another break for me to spend time with more visiting family. Continue reading
When Karl Marx popularized a phrase he borrowed from Friedrich Engels about history repeating itself, first as tragedy and then as farce, he was referring to the tragedy of Napoleon and the subsequent farce of his “grotesque mediocrity” of a nephew, Napoleon the Third. Marx might as well have been writing about monopoly capitalism, as we are now witnessing a repeat of the capitalist grotesqueries of the early twentieth century. But ignorance is bliss, and such mental oblivion precipitates the crude repetitions of time. Continue reading
In April, I made new estimates of the death toll in America’s post-2001 wars in a three-part Intrepid Report series I estimated that these wars have now killed several million people. I explained that widely reported but much lower estimates of the numbers of combatants and civilians killed were likely to be only one fifth to one twentieth of the true numbers of people killed in U.S. war zones. Now one of the NGOs responsible for understating war deaths in Yemen has acknowledged that it was underestimating them by at least five to one, as I suggested in my report. Continue reading
Donald Trump’s erstwhile chief strategist and current occasional telephone adviser, Steve Bannon, has made no secret of his admiration for hedge fund tycoon George Soros and his ability to influence elections around the world to benefit neo-liberal politicians and parties. In creating his Brussels-based group, called simply, “The Movement,” Bannon is emulating Soros’s techniques on behalf of the liberal left in providing electoral advice to neo-Nazi, fascist, and white supremacist political parties around the globe. Continue reading
Not all heroes wear the uniform of war. Continue reading
When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer, Khalida Jarrar on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, Jarrar had been leading a Palestinian effort to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Continue reading
Trump’s White House seems to be both spooked . . . and spooky. Continue reading
Ahead of Tuesday midterms, investigative journalist Greg Palast said illegal voter purges went on in a number of states—including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and Nevada. Continue reading
I can’t be the only one who spent the night of the midterms tossing and turning. Though I managed to shut off the coverage and try to sleep, spasms of anxiety woke me repeatedly throughout the dreary hours. Continue reading
If white nationalists are allowed to abolish birthright citizenship, they will immediately move to de-Americanize as many Blacks as possible for criminal convictions or poverty. Continue reading
A few days after Brazil’s new neo-Nazi president, Jair Bolsonaro, declared victory in that nation’s presidential election, Donald Trump’s “wargasmic” neocon national security adviser, John Bolton, was in Miami unveiling the administration’s version of George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil.” After Trump congratulated the Adolf Hitler-praising Bolsonaro on his victory, Bolton, speaking before a crowd of right-wing Cuban-Americans, warned Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua—nations Bolton called the “Troika of Tyranny”—that the United States and its new far-right allies, including Brazil and Colombia, would work together to overthrow the socialist governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Bolton also referred to the three nations as the “Triangle of Terror.” Continue reading
On the morning of 28 October 2018 Robert Bowers walked into a suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania synagogue filled with worshippers. He was armed with an assault rifle and several handguns. Bowers proceeded to kill eleven people and wound six. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. Continue reading
With a devout follower of President Trump having been active at placing bombs in the US mail directed at Trump’s perceived enemies, corporate media have missed the most important fact in the story, that Trump has inspired a huge number of his admirers to commit violent acts against people in this country. Continue reading
October was a brutal month for the stock market. After the Fed’s eighth interest rate hike on September 26, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2,000 points and the NASDAQ had its worst month in nearly 10 years. Continue reading
Was the Trump regime’s JCPOA pullout and harsh sanctions prelude for something far more aggressive—aiming to weaken and try toppling Iran’s government forcefully? Continue reading
They show up uninvited at your home, business, and vehicle on an average of ten times a day. They come from such relatively unknown places as Meadowview and Boones Mill, Virginia; Warsaw, Kentucky; Justin, Texas; and McKenzie, Tennessee. They try to take your personal details, your savings, and computer passwords. We are not talking about a zombie apocalypse but the scourge of robocalls, the lifeblood of the telemarketing industry. The direct marketing and scam pests run right through the Federal Trade Commission’s Do-Not-Call Registry like a hot knife through butter. Continue reading
Most of us have our guard up when it comes to TV drug ads. We know the butterflies, sunsets and puppies are designed to distract us from terms like “blood clot,” “heart attack,” “stroke,” “seizure,” “life-threatening allergic reaction” and “death.” We realize the audio—if not the video—is actually telling us why we don’t want to “ask our doctor” about the advertised drug. Continue reading
Before the sun comes up tomorrow, we may know whether it’s a blue wave or another red tide. Continue reading
Here’s my closing argument. Continue reading
Sunday I probably walked at least ten freaking miles, all over freaking El Paso, arguably the friendliest city in America. Here’s me, out campaigning for Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate, all looking as chic as a Kardashian in my new “Beto for Texas” T-shirt. But what impressed me most here is the height, width and depth of this campaign. Beto’s volunteers must have knocked on every single door and talked with every single voter in Texas. At least twice. Continue reading
Unilaterally imposed US sanctions on any countries are flagrantly illegal. Washington weaponized them to wage war by other means. Continue reading
“Tổ Quốc Trên Hết” [“Nation Above All”] was a slogan of the defunct and much maligned Republic of South Vietnam, while the Socialist North rallied their populace with “Chống Mỹ Cứu Nước” [“Fight the Americans, Save the Nation”]. During the war, both Vietnamese sides stressed their nationalist credentials while discrediting their opponent as a foreign puppet. The common Vietnamese soldier, then, didn’t fight and die for capitalism, communism, democracy, internationalism, universal brotherhood, America, Russia or China, but only for Vietnam, for only nationalism could justify so much sacrifice, pain and endurance. Continue reading
Trump’s November 6 blitzkrieg depends on stripping our right to vote and flipping the vote count. Continue reading
With Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in Brazil’s presidential election at the weekend, the doom-mongers among western elites are out in force once again. His success, like Donald Trump’s, has confirmed a long-held prejudice: that the people cannot be trusted; that, when empowered, they behave like a mob driven by primitive urges; that the unwashed masses now threaten to bring down the carefully constructed walls of civilisation. Continue reading
There are innocent and guilty actors populating the American stage. Continue reading
Anybody should have known the Trumpies significantly lowering federal income taxes for elite rich civilians would increase the budget deficit, as would significantly increasing military expenditures for poor soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and their staff, and their fat cat civilian corporate suppliers. Continue reading
When we shun all lies and disinformation and value openness, honesty and transparency—that will be a great achievement. Continue reading
In the days leading up to the election, the news has been scary. “We” are under threat from all sides. “They” are threatening us. Continue reading
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Red flag gun laws: Yet another government weapon for compliance and control
Posted on November 19, 2018 by John W. Whitehead
We never learn. Continue reading →