US presidents are front men for powerful interests running things—dark forces assuring their agenda is served. Continue reading
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The next crash
September 15 will mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and near meltdown of Wall Street, followed by the Great Recession. Continue reading
A book for our time, a time that perhaps has run its course
American post-WW 2 supremacy, writes Andrei Martyanov in his book, “Losing Military Supremacy” just published by Clarity Press, has been destroyed by America’s narcissism. Continue reading
Just hours after ordering pay cut for millions of public workers, Trump proposes $100 billion gift to richest 1%
Hours after he launched yet another “direct attack” on workers by canceling a modest pay raise for around two million federal employees, President Donald Trump told Bloomberg on Thursday that he is considering a regressive and possibly illegal plan to use his executive power to hand the rich another $100 billion in tax cuts by indexing capital gains to inflation. Continue reading
How today’s plutocrats are not so different from the czars
Czar Nicholas II believed that he and the Romanovs had a divine right to rule. If the peasants froze or starved to death, that was their problem—he was chosen by god to live a life of luxury, much as American billionaires of today who inherit from the robber barons. No matter how much suffering it causes, they expand their wealth to deprive the masses of so much as a crust of bread. Continue reading
What would it take to ‘win’ the drug war?
After decades of warfare, the federal drug war has become a predictable cycle. Continue reading
Regional bodies invest in rigid borders
Regional international organizations formed to keep the peace are loathe to adjusting borders, even if such changes maintain the peace. For example, when Kosovo President Hashim Thaci recently proposed “a correction” of its border with Serbia, active and retired diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic warned against the idea. Their reasoning is flawed. Continue reading
When illness is a ‘death sentence’: The victimization of Gaza women
Hanan al-Khoudari resorted to Facebook in a cry for help when Israeli authorities rejected her request to accompany her three-year-old son, Louay, to his chemotherapy treatment in East Jerusalem. Continue reading
Vigilantes with a badge: Warrior cops endanger our lives and freedoms
I have known a lot of good cops, I have defended a lot of good cops, and I have been fortunate to call a number of good cops friends. Continue reading
Trump’s foreign policy is that of Nixon’s and Reagan’s on steroids
Donald Trump’s foreign policy, like much of his domestic policy, is a throwback to the worst right-wing excesses of the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan administrations. Mr. Trump, who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War for “bone spurs,” praised that nation’s government during a visit by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Washington in May 2017. Trump repeated those warm words for Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, during a visit to Hanoi in November 2017. However, given the fact that Vietnam recently imprisoned 12 individuals, including two US citizens, who were fighting with a guerilla movement that seeks to restore the US-backed “Republic of Vietnam” (South Vietnam), Trump’s foreign policy could be ripped from the history pages covering 1969 to 1971. Continue reading
The free press, the free market and the tooth fairy
As major capitalist media claim threats to a free press tradition in America, the screams for mercy emanating from establishment sources have been accompanied by yelping from some alleged alternative voices from what often amounts to the anti-social online world. At the behest of minority owners of our democracy, proponents of this alleged freedom at the The New York Times, Washington Post and their TV counterparts, along with please-go-fund-me- patriots from the revolutionary professional class have been working to impeach Trump since before he took office, with frenzied calling for the scalp which barely covers his nearly-empty-as-their-heads, and daily revelations of newer and juicier gossip crimes to assure freedom by throwing him out and setting President Pence up in the subsidized housing in Washington, DC. What? Continue reading
Our economy is more concentrated than ever
Just four tech superpowers raked in half of this year’s stock price gains by the 500 largest corporations.
America’s political history has been written in the fierce narrative of war. Not our country’s many military clashes with foreign nations, but our own unending war for democracy in the United States. Continue reading
A bombshell that awaits grand juries in probes of Trump Organization
Officially, three grand juries have been hearing testimony from witnesses in the Justice Department’s investigation of criminal activities by Trump Organizations and Trump campaign officials. These have included the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal courts in Manhattan, Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Virginia. Continue reading
Israel denies Hamas relatives permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment
Washington, NATO and Israel need enemies to justify their indefensible actions. None exist so they’re invented. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Prison strike 2018
Inmates in states across the nation are on strike against the world’s largest and most racist prison system. Hopefully, they won’t be betrayed by quisling civil rights misleaders, as in 2010. Continue reading
A servant’s tale
My first book, Fake House (2000), was dedicated to “the unchosen,” and by that, I meant all those who are not particularly blessed at birth or during life, just ordinary people, in short, with their daily exertion and endurance. Further, I’ve always considered losing to be our common bond and bedrock, for no matter how smug you may be at the moment, you’ll be laid out by a sucker punch soon enough. Being born into a war-wracked lesser country undoubtedly made it easier to think this way. Continue reading
Imagine our economy as a game of ‘Monopoly’
If you set up the board game like our actual economy, the poorest players quickly run out of money and the rich run away with the game. It's unfair, boring, and exactly what happens in real life.
As a sociology professor in a community college, I have my students play Monopoly. Only, I give them a special, rigged version. Continue reading
There is no limit to presstitute hypocrisy
Caitlin Johnstone warned us that the liberals were going to make a hero out of warmonger John McCain. Continue reading
Defining anti-Semitism, threatening free speech
In May the benign-sounding Anti-Semitism Awareness Act appeared before the U.S Congress “to provide for consideration a definition of anti-Semitism for the enforcement of Federal antidiscrimination laws concerning education programs or activities.” Continue reading
Climate crisis to cause hundreds of millions of dangerous nutrient deficiencies—in countries least responsible for emissions
Higher concentrations of carbon could make crops far less substantive, leading to iron and protein deficiencies
A new study highlights a lesser-known but serious consequence of the climate crisis for hundreds of millions of people around the world—major nutritional deficiencies that are likely to hit impoverished populations the hardest, as carbon dioxide emissions seriously affect the quality of food crops. Continue reading
Most Americans and doctors support universal healthcare
Anything less than universal healthcare for all its citizens and residents is unacceptable in the world’s richest country. Continue reading
The August winds of scandals and coups
Donald Trump’s scandal-plagued administration was, like that of Richard Nixon’s, buffeted by the political winds of August. Continue reading
Trashing treaties: Trump’s shameful legacy
Donald Trump has demonstrated his disdain for international agreements and treaties by either pulling the United States out of them or violating their basic requirements by his malign actions. Trump’s first renunciation of an international agreement was his June 2017 pullout from the Paris Climate Accord. The United States achieved the distinction of being the only nation in the world to denounce the agreement, which had been agreed to by all the world’s nations, including such non-members of the United Nations as the Holy See, the Faroe Islands, Aruba, Curacao, and Somaliland. Continue reading
Accusing Trump of ‘naked economic aggression,’ Iran urges UN high court to halt US sanctions
Amid reports of the “devastating” impact U.S. President Donald Trump’s newly reimposed sanctions are having on ordinary Iranians’ ability to afford basic necessities and life-saving medicines, Iran accused the U.S. of “naked economic aggression” before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday and called on the United Nations body to order the suspension of the penalties. Continue reading
Haaretz warns American Jews of Trump’s downfall
Haaretz delivered a warning today to American Jewry: “If Trump falls, the testimonies of Cohen, Pecker and Weisselberg could spark an anti-Semitic Backlash.” Continue reading
Trump regime cuts more aid to Palestinians
The Trump regime and most all congressional members one-sidedly support Israel’s killing machine. Continue reading
Don’t just impeach Trump, annul his presidency
The only way I see the end of Trump is if there’s overwhelming evidence he rigged the 2016 election. In which case impeachment isn’t an adequate remedy. His presidency should be annulled. Continue reading
Pence tied to Manafort’s offshore business cabal; Is there an Agnew future ahead for Pence?
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, convicted in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on eight criminal counts, including bank and tax fraud, was the chief promoter of Vice President Mike Pence while Trump was deciding on a running mate. Pence’s brother, Ed Pence, is a retired executive with engine manufacturer Cummins, Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana. During Ed Pence’s 36 years with the firm, he was promoted to vice president in charge of strategic initiatives. Ed Pence retired in December 2017. Ed Pence was largely responsible for developing a close relationship between Cummins and Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, based in the Russian autonomous Republic of Tatarstan. Continue reading
Sen. John McCain, Republican war hawk, dead at 81
‘US media worships, above all, US militarism. It's our civic religion.’
Longtime U.S. Senator John McCain, the Republican from Arizona whose pro-war record includes aggressively pushing for the illegal invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, has died. He was 81. Continue reading
How China’s mobile ecosystems are making banks obsolete
Giant Chinese tech companies have bypassed credit cards and banks to create their own low-cost digital payment systems.
The US credit card system siphons off excessive amounts of money from merchants, who must raise their prices to cover this charge. In a typical $100 credit card purchase, only $97.25 goes to the seller. The rest goes to banks and processors. But who can compete with Visa and MasterCard? Continue reading
Israel an enemy of freedom-loving people everywhere
Israel is fighting constantly not only against Gazans, and against Palestinians generally; it is fighting constantly against freedom-loving people everywhere, who oppose dictatorship of any type, and in any country, on principle, irrespective of nationality. Continue reading
Britain prepares for war against Russia
Posted on September 4, 2018 by Brian Cloughley
The headline in the UK newspaper the Daily Mail on August 7 encapsulated much that is paranoid in sad modern Britain. It read “Russian warships pass through English Channel as Putin’s armed forces ratchet up pressure on the Royal Navy.” Continue reading →