According to London’s Guardian, “US intelligence officials are under pressure from the White House to produce a justification to declare Iran in violation of a 2015 nuclear agreement”—despite no evidence suggesting it. Continue reading
On 9/11, as the World Trade Center collapsed and the Pentagon was in flames, Jo Moore, an adviser to one of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet members, sent a short email to her boss’ press office: “It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors expenses?” Continue reading
Is there anyone with half a brain who believes President Trump’s 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner can magically draw up a serious peace process when every administration since Jimmy Carter’s Camp David has tried and failed? Continue reading
When the former Soviet Union’s mighty Red Army defeated Nazi forces in the pivotal WWII battle of Stalingrad, not only was Hitler’s mad dream of a Thousand Year Reich crushed, an accompanying assurance was achieved that the Stars and Stripes, not the Swastika, would be flying from our schoolyard flagpoles today. Continue reading
Sixty-four years past the Korean conflict, Americans are reminded that there was no end to the Korean War only a cease of hostilities which in 2017 can turn into a holocaust as two unstable leaders keep their fidgety fingers over the buttons that can ignite a nuclear war. And of the two, I worry more about Donald Trump than I do Kim Jong-un, for it seems to me that the latter has far more to lose. We are waking up to the reality that an armistice is not something that can stay swept under the rug forever; that eventually the rug will wear out or require that it be cleaned. North Korea just reminded us of it. Continue reading
For the price of a Motel 6, Jonathan Revusky and I have three floors in Florensac, a village of 5,000 in southern France. This house is older than the USA, for sure, with raw wooden beams in the ceilings, stone floors, twisting stairs, odd angled walls, and an entrance to the bathroom so low, the owner had to pad the top casing, lest her guests be knocked out cold. Continue reading
Many are baffled why the suicide rate in the United States is rising despite antidepressant use being at an all time high. Suicide has risen to 38,000 a year, says USA Today, after falling in the 1990s despite almost a quarter of the population in some age groups taking antidepressants and use of some psychiatric drugs growing by 700% in the military. Shouldn’t suicides be going down? Continue reading
During these trying times, for any of us with even an ounce of rationality, please go out and get the 1997 Barry Levinson film Wag the Dog. This satire (is it really?) was originally based on the sexual scandals around our president at the time, Bill ‘Ignore my smirks’ Clinton. In reality, this film is really a testament to many of our presidents and how they use phony foreign threats to raise their poll numbers. Continue reading
Donald Trump’s pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio marks the real beginning of the coming constitutional crisis in America. Continue reading
It has recently been reported that Senator John McCain has an aggressive brain tumor. Not long ago I would have thought: “Good. It’ll be great to be rid of that Neanderthal reactionary bastard!” Continue reading
The U.S. government leads a global operation to make racist fascism ‘respectable’ again. Continue reading
I hate to say this, but I’m starting to feel sorry for Donald Trump. He’s only been in office for half a year, and already he’s running out of Americans to attack. Continue reading
This man is a husband, the father of two children, Latino, and a US citizen. For 18 years he taught high school, most recently in a rural area of a southern state—where he also resides among farmers, many of whom reject the notion of a generous earth that nourishes all people. Instead they stand their ground, soil fertile with roots that grow deep into the past. They wave Confederate flags, display the oppressive symbol on their vehicle’s bumper, long for a time when black men and women slaved in the fields. They believe Donald Trump will make America great again for many reasons. They want that wall built, migrants deported. They support Blue Lives Matter, the right to carry a gun, any gun, including assault rifles, would subjugate not only people of color but also anyone who is outside their definition of acceptable. Continue reading
In the last few weeks President Trump has gone through a series of defining moments, in which his disturbing rhetorical reactions to historical developments have opened a window on his sense of the world and the nation. Continue reading
Some US white supremacists according to Facebook posts are finding out with DNA tests they have some African genes, and some African Americans are finding out with DNA tests they have European genes. I think this is a good thing, showing how people from around Earth are genetically related. Maybe everyone ought to take a DNA test to combat racism and morbid narcissism. Continue reading
In 2009, CBS news reported that drugmakers had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to raise awareness of fibromyalgia which it called, “a murky illness, helping boost sales of pills recently approved as treatments and drowning out unresolved questions—including whether it’s a real disease at all.” Eli Lilly and Pfizer had donated more than $6 million to “nonprofit groups for medical conferences and educational campaigns,” reported CBS. While fibromyalgia, like most diseases given such “awareness” certainly exists, the timing and estimation of how many people “suffer” was totally orchestrated by Pharma and its many patient front groups. Continue reading
Not too far away from Seattle, Washington, there are eight ballistic-missile submarines carrying the world’s large shipments of nuclear weapons. Continue reading
If you voted for Donald Trump, I get it. Maybe you feel you’ve been so badly shafted by the system that you didn’t want to go back to politics as usual, and Trump seemed like he’d topple that corrupt system. Continue reading
Since May 2017 an ongoing insurgency has been raging in the Shia heartland town of Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia and its only thanks to the BBC being allowed to enter the area and film the destruction that the world can see how the House of Saud’s war against the Shia population of Yemeni has now expanded to include the Shia population of eastern Saudi Arabia. Continue reading
More than 100 robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) experts published on Monday an open letter urging the United Nations to ban the development and use of killer robots. Continue reading
Next month, hundreds across the country will participate in “Out of the Darkness” walks to raise awareness about suicide and to support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Continue reading
There are reports that ousted White House chief strategist Steve Bannon wants former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to testify to Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the chain of events that led to President Donald Trump firing FBI director James Comey. Bannon is apparently aware that it was Kushner and First Daughter Ivanka Trump that convinced the president to fire Comey at a family get-together at Trump’s Bedminister, New Jersey, golf club this past May. According to a Vanity Fair article, presidential aide Stephen Miller, who has cultivated a close relationship with Kushner, was also at the Bedminster meeting. Continue reading
Trump’s Monday address on Afghanistan didn’t surprise. What a difference an election makes! Continue reading
Iraqi Kurdish military intelligence reports have estimated that the nine-month-long U.S.-Iraqi siege and bombardment of Mosul to oust Islamic State forces killed 40,000 civilians. This is the most realistic estimate so far of the civilian death toll in Mosul. Continue reading
James Bond creator and British intelligence agent, Ian Fleming, famously wrote “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” Robert Ludlum’s fictional spy, Jason Bourne, said, “Coincidence is rarely a factor.” Continue reading
Fascism . . . a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. (Merriam-Webster) Continue reading
With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, it’s unlikely Trump will be impeached or thrown out of office on grounds of mental impairment. At least any time soon. Continue reading
Talal Samara fingered his prayer beads throughout the interview as he sat in his living room chair, bluish smoke curling upwards from his cigarette. He had recently had surgery, and the doctors had told him that under no circumstances was he allowed to smoke. But the stress of recent events had made this impossible. Continue reading
It’s rife in America, thousands incarcerated and abused for political reasons—notably people of color and Muslims, deplorably treated like fifth column threats. Continue reading
Two of the U.S. government’s supposed allies are supposedly not allies of each other but enemies of each other, but, away from the glare of the ‘news’ media, they actually work together with each other to control, by means of their secret actual alliance with one-another, a substantial, if not the major, part of U.S. foreign policies—especially regarding Iran, Russia, Syria, Israel, Palestinians, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Turkey, but much else besides. These two secret allies of each other, who largely determine U.S. foreign policies, are the Saud family and the government of Israel. Continue reading
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Syria’s victories represent a window of opportunity
Posted on August 30, 2017 by Mark Taliano
Any leader of any country that refuses Washington’s dictatorship is automatically demonized. Leaders are accused of “killing their own people” or worse. Real evidence is never required in the Orwellian era in which we live. Continue reading →