It doesn’t take many brain cells to figure out that the TSA, institutionally and individually, holds us in contempt. In their eyes, we’re all potential terrorists. Also peons who have to be put in their place. Never mind that we pay their salaries, every penny of their $8-billion-a-year budget, and that they are supposed to facilitate flying, not impede it. Continue reading
The problems of humanity have reached such an apex that it is now critical for governments to implement the principle of sharing within and between every single country. It is critical on several counts: firstly, to release the joy and creativity that is inherent in every human being but widely suppressed through economic hardship and social breakdown, with levels of depression throughout the world now reaching epidemic proportions. Secondly, it is critical in a literal sense for the millions of men, women and children who live without adequate means for survival, and who are needlessly dying from poverty and disease with each passing day. Furthermore, it is vital that we integrate the principle of sharing into inter-governmental policies if we are to stand a chance of averting environmental catastrophe, for the necessary time for transforming our societies is fast running out. The world itself is sick and in a state of emergency, for which only sharing can provide the necessary healing and remedy. But on all these counts we are left in a quandary, because the crucial missing factor is a collective understanding that sharing is verily the solution to our problems, and our last remaining hope. Without an all-embracing public awareness that sharing is the only way out, it is impossible that this neglected principle can be implemented into world affairs. Continue reading
Why hasn’t Washington joined Russian President Putin in calling for an objective, non-politicized international investigation by experts of the case of the Malaysian jetliner? Continue reading
As the next round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) took place in Brussels last week, civil society groups were continuing to mobilise against this ongoing free trade agreement between the U.S. and EU that poses a threat to our public services, environment, food, privacy and democracy. On Saturday, around a thousand people occupied the square in front of the European Union’s base in London, UK, and demanded an end to the trade deal that is being described by the #noTTIP coalition of activists and organisations as an unprecedented corporate power-grab. Continue reading
Call it what you will—taxes, penalties, fees, fines, regulations, tariffs, tickets, permits, surcharges, tolls, asset forfeitures, foreclosures, etc.—but the only word that truly describes the constant bilking of the American taxpayer by the government and its corporate partners is theft. Continue reading
No one should have to choose between their hairline and their health. But increasingly, men who use finasteride, commonly known as Propecia, to treat their male pattern baldness are making that choice, often unwittingly. In the 17 years since Propecia was approved to treat hair loss from male pattern baldness, so many disturbing urogenital and other side effects have emerged, the term Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) has been coined and hundreds of lawsuits have been brought. Continue reading
Visiting the FDR Library and Museum is like journeying to a place where time has stopped and a world much different from the one we now inhabit exists. I hadn’t been to the FDR Presidential Library in several years and eagerly anticipated seeing the newly renovated museum at the library. Here there are no disappointments. FDR’s New Deal and progressive/left politics jump out from every nook and cranny of the exhibit, and the interactive displays of his presidency are so well done that they immediately catch museum goers’ attention and interest. Continue reading
Washington’s propaganda machine is in such high gear that we are in danger of losing the facts that we do have. Continue reading
The root of the carnage in Gaza is Israel’s occupation, colony expansion, blockade of the Strip and reticence to get serious about peace, so it’s little wonder that Hamas refuses to accept a ceasefire based on the ‘peace for peace’ 2012 model. Its demands include a complete lifting of Israel’s siege on the Strip, the reopening of the Rafah crossing to Egypt 24/7 and a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Continue reading
NATO charter member Denmark has been a sycophantic ally of the United States for most of the years following the founding of the Western military alliance in 1949. Until 1949, many Danes favored the creation of a neutralist military bloc of Nordic nations that would steer clear of American and Soviet military alliances. This attitude by the Danes irked Washington. A recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency document titled Neutrality and Third Force Tendencies in Western Europe and dated December 19, 1950, bemoaned the presence of neutralists in Denmark . . . Continue reading
Evidently, not much has changed in our foreign policy since Gonzi (former Prime Minister of Malta) took us into the Libyan war! However, rest assured that the people would judge you all when they awake! Continue reading
At a lunch with some “old friends,” we were talking about our adult children and one of my friends, Vincent Amato, a corpulent fellow with a thick graying beard and longish hair, a wonderful sense of humor and love of history—mentioned that his son had become brutish as some kind of social worker. The son credited that to the fact that Vincent divorced his son’s mother and step-mother. I added that I have a daughter with an MSM from Fordham University and her mother and I were divorced. My other friend Frank Tolopko summed up the situation by saying, “wouldn’t it be funny if the world turned out to be all keepers and patients?” I said,“ It would be a psychological welfare state. We’re almost there.” Continue reading
Geopolitical observers of the Middle East turbulence tend to blame the raging chaos in the area on the presumed failure of the “incoherent,” “illogical” or “contradictory” policies of the United States. Irrefutable evidence (some of which presented in this study) suggests, however, that, in fact, the chaos represents the success, not failure, of those policies—policies that are designed by the beneficiaries of war and military adventures in the region, and beyond. Continue reading
The most heartbreaking thing is to view Ukrainian refugees on Russia Today (RT.com), children, parents, men, women, crying, still trying to fathom how and why they lost their homes, loved ones, and future. And in addition to this, have seen the Malaysian Flight MH17 with 298 people on board fall out of the air, apparently over the Ukraine. Continue reading
The unilateral US sanctions announced by Obama on July 16 blocking Russian weapons and energy companies access to US bank loans demonstrate Washington’s impotence. The rest of the world, including America’s two largest business organizations, turned their backs on Obama. The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers placed ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post protesting US sanctions. NAM said that the manufacturer’s association is “disappointed that the US is extending sanctions in increasingly unilateral ways that will undermine US commercial engagement.” Bloomberg reported that “meeting in Brussels, leaders of the European Union refused to match the US measures.” Continue reading
It has been four years since Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, was suspected of pharmaceutical conflicts of interest. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, he assured the dean of the University of Miami medical school that if the dean hired Charles Nemeroff, government money would not be denied to U. of Miami. Continue reading
Ah, I love waking up to stories like this! It’s like living in absurdist theater, only the people running the theater are too stupid to see it for what it is. Continue reading
For years, homeowners have been battling Wall Street in an attempt to recover some portion of their massive losses from the housing Ponzi scheme. But progress has been slow, as they have been outgunned and out-spent by the banking titans. Continue reading
(WMR)—The attack policy that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has used in indiscriminately targeting civilians in Gaza mirrors the policy of the Ukrainian government in attacking civilians in eastern Ukraine. Moreover, the two operations, Israel’s “Protective Edge” and Ukraine’s “Anti-terrorist operation,” have something else in common. Both were developed by the same Zionist fascist elements who are calling the shots in Jerusalem and Kiev. Continue reading
I’m certain that the title of this piece will cause some readers discomfort and anger. That’s good. It’s time for some discomfort. For too long, we have looked the other way in our unconditional support of Israel. Too many support Israel unconditionally, not because they’re right and not because their actions are justified but because they are Jews. Continue reading
There’s a lot to love about America and its people: their pioneering spirit, their entrepreneurship, their ability to think outside the box, their passion for the arts, etc. Increasingly, however, as time goes by, I find the things I don’t like about living in a nation that has long since ceased to be a sanctuary for freedom are beginning to outnumber the things I love. Continue reading
It’s pretty common these days to have your resumé/curriculum vitae publicly available on a website. Most people use LinkedIn, which I can’t abide (it plunders your private email account, sends invitations without your knowledge to everybody under the sun to “link” to you, pretends to get you jobs, and other things not worth going into), so I use a site called Brand Yourself instead. Continue reading
When the bodies of three Israeli settlers—Aftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19—were found on June 30 near Hebron in the southern West Bank, Israel went into a state of mourning and a wave of sympathy flowed in from around the world. The three had disappeared 18 days earlier in circumstances that remain unclear. Continue reading
(WMR)—The latest release of documents from the Ed Snowden cache reveal that the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the National Security Agency’s British counterpart, has spearheaded the development of tools to manipulate, disrupt, and collect personal information from social media, including Facebook, PalTalk, and YouTube. Continue reading
Don’t tag Edward Snowden as someone he does not want to be; for he is neither a hero, nor a traitor. He is, or should be, a proud citizen of an evolving hopeful world who has earned such citizenship not by right of birth, ethnic background or bloodlines, or by loyalty oath, but by a selfless personal contribution to the building of a positive, more humane world . . . where privacy and individual freedoms take precedence over the sad spectacle we are becoming in the United States: an electorate-collective of mindless consumerists, a Borg-like serving a warmongering, corporate power-elite. Continue reading
Oil made this America-dominated, futuristic world and with its increasing scarcity, will unravel it. Most pampered yet most disappointed, we’re living in the age of peak oil, water, gold, copper, wheat, rice, cabbage, porn, greed and banking shenanigans, etc., for with more mouths than ever going after a shrinking donut hole, the ugliness is just getting started, and let us not forget, this age of oil has also been an era of mass carnage, a century of resource wars that have wiped out hundreds of millions, but for the survivors, us grubby schmucks, what a cool ride, eh? Continue reading
This article is an epiphany stimulated by Michael Adzema’s Funny God Facebook Post, January 14, 2014. Continue reading
(WMR)—Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting Brazil where he will participate in the 2014 summit of the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa held in the city of Fortaleza. Continue reading
As the Israeli Cabinet announced early yesterday that it accepted the Egyptian cease-fire offer, Palestinian freedom fighters in Gaza continued firing rockets targeting the whole of Israel. Continue reading
I’ve just seen a photograph of the sweetest tiny girl, a Palestinian child little more than a baby, hugging her dead father. I’ve watched televised footage of a distraught father clinging to his young daughter who’s missing half her head, screaming “Please wake up. I’ve brought you a toy.” There are so many children in Gaza now without mothers and fathers, and so many parents grieving the loss of their kids. Continue reading
For a very good reason, this year my girlfriend, Pat, and I were in London for the Fourth of July. The British feigned indifference to the anniversary of our breakaway, like disappointed parents choosing not to mention the unruly prodigal who dropped out, left home and, in spite of their warnings, did okay. Continue reading
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The end of Israel
Posted on July 24, 2014 by Gilad Atzmon
In his speech to the nation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged yesterday that the war on Gaza is a battle for the existence of the Jewish State. Netanyahu is correct. And Israel cannot win this battle; it cannot even define what a victory might entail. Surely the battle is not about the tunnels or the militants’ underground operation, the tunnels are just weapons of resistance rather than the resistance itself. The Hamas and Gaza militants lured Israel into a battle zone in which it could never succeed and Hamas set the conditions, chose the ground and has written the terms required to conclude this cycle of violence. Continue reading →