“Ooh well the storm is threatening, my very life’s at stake. Gimme gimme shelter before I fade away . . .” Such go the words of the Rolling Stones, circa 1969. Continue reading
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Postcard from the end of America: Columbus, Ohio
I was in Columbus all of ten hours. Even downtown, some of the sidewalks were clogged by snow, and as I crossed the Sciotto into Franklinton, my trudging became even more laborious. Mostly I walked on the side of the street, and on side streets, right in the middle. Continue reading
NATO plans global dominance
NATO was established in April 1949. It’s a US imperial tool. It’s been this way from inception. Washington provides the lion’s share of funding. It’s around 75%. Continue reading
Freedom from religion
For a long time I’ve thought about and have been ambivalent about writing this article. People are very sensitive about religion and their freedom to worship and I wasn’t certain how it would be received. I want to state now that I respect people’s right to worship their God in any way they choose. That is not what this article is about. It’s really about the imposition of organized religion and religious dogma into the political, economic, and social lives of a worldwide multi-ethnic reality; the imposition of beliefs that can deprive others of their rights. Continue reading
The charge of the Scientology brigade
The almost simultaneous rise to power of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the acting prime minister of Ukraine and Andrej Kiska as president of Slovakia has prompted fears that the secretive U.S.-based Church of Scientology is making a power grab in Central and Eastern Europe. Continue reading
Kerry’s looming deadline and the peace process industry
As the US-imposed April 29 deadline for a ‘framework’ agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority looms, time is also running out for the American administration itself. The Obama administration must now conjure up an escape route to avoid a political crisis if the talks are to fail, as they surely will. Continue reading
It’s not just the cat doing it outside the box
Shit. The cat was going outside the box. But I’ve dealt with the personality disordered and knew this particular challenge might be within my purview. I just needed to think outside the box. Continue reading
‘April is the cruellest month’—or is it?
One of America’s greatest poems and poets, The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, seems to miss the full truth of this April, opening with its famous first line . . . Continue reading
The nuclear omnicide
In the 35 years since the March 28, 1979, explosion and meltdown at Three Mile Island, fierce debate has raged over whether humans were killed there. In 1986 and 2011, Chernobyl and Fukushima joined the argument. Whenever these disasters happen, there are those who claim that the workers, residents and military personnel exposed to radiation will be just fine. Continue reading
Pollard federal prosecutor felt brunt of Israel Lobby
(WMR)—Joseph diGenova, the chief federal prosecutor who brought about the conviction of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, told ABC News that to bargain with Israel over freeing Pollard in return for unenforceable concessions by Israel in peace talks with the Palestinians makes no sense after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s actions. DiGenova said Pollard sold Israel 360 cubic feet of documents for a sum total of $600,000. Contrary to what Pollard has said about his actions only serving the interests of Israel, ABC News was told by intelligence sources that many of the documents that Pollard provided to Israel were later handed over by the Jewish state to the Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa. Continue reading
Jonathan Pollard’s imminent release?
On Monday, John Kerry traveled to Israel for the 11th time. He did so relating to sham peace talks. Last July they began. No progress whatever was achieved. Continue reading
‘Just salute and follow orders’: When secrecy and surveillance trump the rule of law
Question: How can you tell when a politician is lying? Answer: When he’s moving his lips. Continue reading
The new New World Order
It was a different world two decades ago. The Soviet Union under Yeltsin’s hand capitulated to the West and the slow march away from a democratizing state began. The West had ‘won’ the Cold War and had it within its range to make a global ‘peace dividend’ with promises to not extend NATO into eastern Europe. The U.S. economy, although already on the path to serious economic debt problems, had worked side by side with China for a new era of global prosperity, at the same time that the economic tide in Russia was all about asset stripping and the rise of the oligarchs. Continue reading
Israeli meme about Jonathan Pollard patently false
(WMR)—Israel’s domestic and foreign propaganda apparatus is spinning the yarn that convicted U.S. spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard has served longer in prison than any other spy for an American “ally.” The meme from Israel considers that Israel, which is considered a “hostile intelligence” nation by the FBI, Directorate of National Intelligence, each of the military service’s counter-intelligence branches, the CIA, and the National Security Agency, is an American ally. American counter-intelligence places Israel in the category of a nation with a hostile intelligence agency. Continue reading
The Federal Reserve has no integrity
As we documented in previous articles, the gold price is driven down in the paper futures market by naked short selling by the Fed’s dependent bullion banks. Some people have a hard time accepting this fact even though it is known that the big banks have manipulated the LIBOR (London Interbank Overnight Rate—London’s equivalent of the Fed Funds rate) interest rate and the twice-daily London gold price fix. Continue reading
Ukraine is not out of the woods
The pro-Europe protesters in Kiev succeeded in dislodging a president for which they’ve paid an unexpected price. The Crimean Peninsula is lost to them, perhaps forever; the majority of their military personnel based there have defected to Russia—and there may be a lot worse to come. It’s an uncomfortable truth that people’s power, however well intentioned, is more often than not destructive. It’s primarily driven by the emotions of people unable to grasp the big picture. The Kiev crowds may have initially got what they wanted, but will they want what they get? Continue reading
The remains of the day—rather, of our insanity
Political cartoonist Ted Rall once again hits the nail squarely on the head. Continue reading
Banking union time bomb: Eurocrats authorize bailouts and bail-ins
On March 20, 2014, European Union officials reached an historic agreement to create a single agency to handle failing banks. Media attention has focused on the agreement involving the single resolution mechanism (SRM), a uniform system for closing failed banks. But the real story for taxpayers and depositors is the heightened threat to their pocketbooks of a deal that now authorizes both bailouts and “bail-ins”—the confiscation of depositor funds. The deal involves multiple concessions to different countries and may be illegal under the rules of the EU Parliament; but it is being rushed through to lock taxpayer and depositor liability into place before the dire state of Eurozone banks is exposed. Continue reading
The Russians aren’t coming
It’s back to the future. It’s reminiscent of Cold War fearmongering. It claimed the Russians are coming. Continue reading
Obama is no credible human rights advocate
Prior to the US president’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz last week, Amnesty International urged Barack Obama to tackle the kingdom’s human rights record, suggesting that he use a female driver during his visit. That call was supported by 52 bipartisan US lawmakers and the US-based NGO Freedom House. My visceral reaction to that news was “Who the heck do they think they are!” Haven’t they heard the expression ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?’ Continue reading
Western looting of Ukraine has begun
It is now apparent that the “Maidan protests” in Kiev were in actuality a Washington organized coup against the elected democratic government. The purpose of the coup is to put NATO military bases on Ukraine’s border with Russia and to impose an IMF austerity program that serves as cover for Western financial interests to loot the country. The sincere idealistic protesters who took to the streets without being paid were the gullible dupes of the plot to destroy their country. Continue reading
A cross-cultural look at depression and how to recover
Interview with Gayathri Ramprasad, author of ‘Shadows in the Sun: Healing from Depression and Finding the Light Within’
The just published memoir, Shadows in the Sun, is a first-of-its-kind, cross-cultural lens to mental illness through the inspiring story of the author’s thirty-year battle with depression. Continue reading
Planned Turkish false flag exposed
Welcome to police state Turkey. It’s no democracy. Claiming otherwise is a convenient illusion. Continue reading
Pushing toward the final war
Does Obama realize that he is leading the US and its puppet states to war with Russia and China, or is Obama being manipulated into this disaster by his neoconservative speech writers and government officials? World War 1 (and World War 2) was the result of the ambitions and mistakes of a very small number of people. Only one head of state was actually involved-–the president of France. Continue reading
Alabama reporter released from jail
(WMR)—Roger Shuler, the Alabama blogger and former Birmingham newspaper reporter, was released from an Alabama jail on March 26. Continue reading
Raffles of death
The flyer for the giveaway of an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle at Grace Baptist Church in Troy, New York, on March 23, reads “Does the Bible defend my right to keep and bear arms?” With the donation of the rifle from a local gun shop, the church’s pastor, the Reverend John Koletas said he was “honoring hunters and gun owners” by holding the raffle at the church (“Troy pastor’s AR-15 rifle giveaway creates controversy,” Times Union, March 7, 2014). Continue reading
TSA wants guns—can the O.K. Corral be far behind?
Oh, well. I was trying to avoid writing about this because it’s so idiotic, and because the official report is, predictably, so long and turgid and full of asinine acronyms and bumbling bureaucrat-speak. But since it’s being reported all over the news, I guess have to. Continue reading
Anti-fracking activist can now go to the hospital
Vera Scroggins of Susquehanna County, Pa., will now be allowed to go to her hospital, supermarket, drug store, several restaurants, and the place where she goes for rehabilitation therapy. She can also go to the county’s recycling center, which is on 12.5 acres of land the county had leased to Cabot Gas & Oil Corp., one of the largest drillers in the country. Continue reading
‘We’re all some kind of Native now’
It was Good Friday, 50 years ago on March 27, 1964, that according to seismologists, the snow peaks of Prince William Sound jumped 33 feet into the air and fell back down. Emergency warnings about an earthquake-spurred tsunami went out to towns from Valdez, Alaska, to Malibu, Calif., but no one thought to send a message to the Chugach Natives in Chenega, Alaska. Continue reading
Japan stops treating radioactive water
Can it ever be treated? Is it even possible?
SAN FRANCISCO—It is time to call it what it is: It’s a Scam. It’s a Con Job. There is no solution, never was and never will be. That’s the whole Con and you, like most people, probably fell for the notion hook, line and sinker that radioactivity can be removed from water. Continue reading
Ukrainian lessons
The first lesson, and it’s a very old one, is that violent protest does work, and also sinister tricks such as having your own snipers shoot at police and fellow protesters. Without this ramping up of mayhem and bloodshed, the Ukrainian government would not have been discredited, destabilized and finally overthrown. Continue reading
Private financing = private government? Really?
Posted on April 8, 2014 by Frank Scott
Outrage over the most recent decision of our Court of Supreme Profits is understandable if coming from people only recently introduced to the American market system of private control of everything, especially the electoral process. But those who’ve been tilting at this windmill for many years really need to stop and think: how can they go on trying to simply control and not end private financing of elections and still believe in an alleged public power they call democracy? Continue reading →