The term ‘media bias’ does not do justice to the Western corporate media’s relationship with Israel and Palestine. The relationship is, indeed, far more profound than mere partiality. It is not ignorance, either. It is a calculated and long-term campaign, aimed at guarding Israel and demonizing Palestinians. Continue reading
The warming of the Earth over the past several decades is throwing Mother Nature’s food chain out of whack and leaving many species struggling to survive, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue reading
In the face of steadily deteriorating imperial power, the reactionary forces of global capital have pressed the panic button and are performing far worse than rats on a sinking ship, unless those rats were armed with nuclear weapons and were as deluded as the politburo of Western capitalism. Unfortunately some who were previously considered advocates of change are now among the deluded mentioned in the quote and have become foremost protectors of the reactionary political economics of global capital controlled by the market forces of Artificial Intelligence. Continue reading
Democracy in America is pure fantasy, money-controlled elections farcical when held. Continue reading
Under President Donald Trump, the US has basically eliminated the only real international authority the UN used to have. Here is how this was done . . . Continue reading
Just got an e-mail from a friend of mine in Aleppo regarding the recent “Friday the 13th” missile strike there—brought to the Syrian people courtesy of FUK-US (France, the United Kingdom and the U.S.) My friend watched the event on Syrian TV and apparently it was like watching a low-budget horror movie—not all that scary. 70% of the missiles were shot down by Syrian equipment left over from the 1960s. So much for Fire and Fury. Continue reading
I wonder how many people, not just Americans but those in other countries, have come to the conclusion that the United States today is a less free and less aware society than the societies in the dystopian novels of the 20th century or in movies such as The Matrix and V for Vendetta. Just as people in the dystopian novels had no idea of their real situation, few Americans do either. Continue reading
The nation’s founders created a system, empowering its privilege class alone to rule—democracy the way it should be an anathema notion rejected throughout US history. Continue reading
“It’s nonsense that there’s a beautiful free market in the power industry,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said last week as he pushed for a government bailout of coal-fired power plants. Continue reading
When one looks with any sense of calm and neutral curiosity at the alleged poisoning of the Skripals, one cannot help but come away with the conclusion that a judgment had already been decided upon and that evidence—the kind that might be scrutinized by independent parties and brought up for international inspection—had been relegated to irrelevance. Russia, we all heard, was the villain, the culprit, the evil demon whose ways cannot be countered except by force. Continue reading
April 13 is the third consecutive Great March of Return Friday, continuing in besieged Gaza until Nabka Day commemorations on May 15. Continue reading
The recent air strikes on Syria and increasing U.S. propaganda aimed at whipping the public into a war frenzy against Russia couldn’t be more transparently manipulative. More and more people are waking up to the fact that the U.S. and some of our allies keep instigating unjust, illegal wars around the world for the motives of power and profit. The U.S. always claims it conducts its endless wars for humanitarian reasons or to protect people at home, but those excuses have been proved false again and again. The main problem with this continual warring is that it always ultimately costs innocent human lives and much suffering. Continue reading
President Donald Trump would have been wise to have used a different turn of phrase to announce an end to US, UK and French strikes on three Syrian targets. ‘Mission accomplished’ evokes an image of George W. Bush on board a US aircraft carrier in May 2003 prematurely touting victory in Iraq. Continue reading
I was chatting with my tobacconist the other day—I have no rabbi, no priest, no minister, no imam, no chiropractor, and no lawyer, but I do have a tobacconist—when it struck me that my trade deficit with him is astronomical. Continue reading
Overnight Friday US-led aggression on Syrian targets was the latest shoe to drop on a sovereign state and its people—victimized by Washington’s rage to replace its legitimate government with pro-Western puppet rule. Continue reading
To really understand President Trump, one must first understand what’s behind the spanking he got from Stormy Daniels. Continue reading
If one had wanted to create a psychosocial experiment to study the liberal political mentality, one could not have come up with a better solution than to have Donald Trump follow Barack Obama as president of the United States: one a blank screen, the Archangel, the other, the Antichrist, a raging volcano. The Archangel departed from office to a fond and teary-eyed farewell. The Antichrist was greeted with anger and outrage. There were protests around the country. There were attempts to prevent his election. He is probably the first president in American history to be docketed for impeachment before he even took office. Continue reading
In a 2 April 2018 interview in the Atlantic, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman publicly declared that the Israelis “have a right to live in their own land just like the Palestinians.” It is a problematic assumption, given that the Israelis’ “own land” is the land they took away from the Palestinians. This, and much else, has been either forgotten or ignored by the Saudi crown prince. Continue reading
I know it sounds incredible, but this is how it happened. . . . Continue reading
The ease with which Americans are prepared to welcome boots on the ground, regional lockdowns, routine invasions of their privacy, and the dismantling of every constitutional right intended to serve as a bulwark against government abuses is beyond unnerving. Continue reading
Without major media support, US imperial wars might not get off the dime. They’re vital to gain public support or at least prevent strong opposition. Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet and professor of Creative Writing at Texas State. Her father was Palestinian and a refugee journalist. Continue reading
Question: What do you get when you combine ignorance, imperiousness, and incompetence? Continue reading
The market forces of religious capital have been running the world for hundreds of years during which time they have made advances and benefitted many beyond any system that came before. But so did slavery and feudalism, while also, like capitalism, slaughtering and brutalizing more people than those to whom they brought benefit. Their time passed and they were replaced by newer arrangements, all in keeping with the subjugation of humanity and limiting social choice, if any, to lesser and not seemingly greater evil organizations always ruled by un-chosen minorities. We are now in the time in which the capitalist farce of market forces needs to be radically changed before the comedy moves from farce to a tragedy for all of humanity and not just one or another slave state, feudal fiefdom or capitalist corporation. Continue reading
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s choice to be the US National Security Adviser, has long been a surrogate for former Vice President Dick Cheney. In almost every sense, Bolton mirrors the war-hawk policies advocated by Cheney before, during, and after his stint as George W. Bush’s vice president. Continue reading
WW I followed events in Serbia. Poland was ground zero for WW II. Will East/West conflict in Syria escalate to war to end all others, risking catastrophic nuclear war? Continue reading
Yaser Murtaja was a Palestinian journalist acting in his professional capacity when he was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). He was covering the second Great Return March in Gaza and was clearly identified as press when an Israeli sniper fired a fatal shot. Continue reading
Yuri Drexler’s first thought was, “how did this parcel ever manage to get through to me?” upon examining the markings on the parcel. He was surprised to see that it had come from Gaza. Within the parcel he had just received was a well-crafted hourglass, set in a cedar frame with the word Palestine carved into the upper orb. Great care had been taken to insure the artefact would survive the journey as it arrived tightly packed in balls of polystyrene. Continue reading
In Marseilles, I met an illegal immigrant from Nghe An. He said his boss and housemates in Paris were all from the same province. Long known for its poverty, Nghe An leads Vietnam in the ratio of people working overseas, with most never returning. In fact, so many have become illegal in South Korea, Vietnam is blocking 11 Nghe An districts from sending people there. Continue reading
Eighteen more Palestinians were unapologetically murdered this past “Good Friday” by the Israeli military. They were unarmed. They were on their own land. They were desperate. They screamed their desperation as they marched. Then, they shouted their daily reality of personal horrors too close to Israel’s attention. So, they were killed. Continue reading
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Freedom Rider: Syria and press propaganda
Posted on April 20, 2018 by Margaret Kimberley
It is difficult for Americans to find out what is happening in their country and around the world. That is because corporate media outlets have nearly complete control over what they see and hear and because those interests are closely allied with the state. The promise of the Internet, the hoped for level playing field for communication and information gathering, is also under corporate control. It is now part of a well coordinated censorship effort and attack against left-wing sites such as Black Agenda Report. Continue reading →