Chalk it up as a given that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has back door access to smart phone users whose devices were penetrated by the malware Trojan horse called Pegasus by its Israeli vendor, NSO Group. As is always the case when Israel gets caught spying, they have denied doing anything wrong in selling Pegasus to various brutal regimes around the world to spy on journalists, opposition politicians and activists, and businessmen. Continue reading
LONDON—This past Sunday (July 18), an investigation into the global abuse of spyware developed by veterans of Israeli intelligence Unit 8200 gained widespread attention, as it was revealed that the software—sold to democratic and authoritarian governments alike—had been used to illegally spy on an estimated 50,000 individuals. Among those who had their communications and devices spied on by the software, known as Pegasus, were journalists, human rights activists, business executives, academics and prominent political leaders. Among those targeted political leaders, per reports, were the current leaders of France, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Iraq. Continue reading
Anyone who believed the departure of former U.S. President Donald Trump would constitute a return to more effective diplomacy has been grievously mistaken. The Biden Administration is not even close to replicating the slightest approach towards Cuba which former U.S. President Barack Obama moved towards, following the release of the Cuban Five. On the contrary, not only has U.S. President Joe Biden not reversed Trump’s policies, but extended them to include further punitive measures. It is becoming clear that the U.S. was only biding its time to declare openly aggressive policies against Cuba. Continue reading
Georgina Orellano, secretary-general of the Association of Women Sex Workers of Argentina (AMMAR), says that “the pandemic has highlighted the inequality” in society and deepened the problems faced by sex workers. Sex work, which is not recognized in Argentina, has become more precarious, she says. Continue reading
The current Black-centered Cuban protest operation is very well orchestrated and if Black people in this country are not careful, they will end up amplifying the dictates of U.S. imperialism. Continue reading
The “big lie” that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected is not going away. One reason is Americans who care about their democracy are not learning how votes for president in 2020 were counted and verified—neither from the big lie’s promoters nor from most of its fact-driven critics. Continue reading
Right-wing hypocrites are lining up for an expected Supreme Court nullification of Roe v. Wade. Continue reading
Jeff Bezos touched down after his 10 minutes, 10 second vertical 66 mile zoom above Earth. He felt so on top of the Earth that he agreed to one-on-one interviews with a gaggle of salivating reporters. Looking over a list of their names, he spotted journalist Greg Galaxy and picked him first. Continue reading
Europe’s identity crisis is not confined to the ceaseless squabbles by Europeans over the EU, Brexit or football. It goes much deeper, reaching sensitive and dangerous territory, including that of culture and religion. Once more, Muslims stand at the heart of the continent’s identity debate. Continue reading
During the early morning of July 17, Johana Tablada joined tens of thousands of Cubans as they gathered along the Malecón boulevard in Havana to stand with the Cuban Revolution. “We are human beings who live, work, suffer, and struggle for a better Cuba,” she told us. “We are not bots or troll farms or anything like that.” She referred to what has been called the Bay of Tweets, a social media campaign developed in Miami, Florida, that attempted to inflame Cuba’s social problems into a political crisis. Continue reading
The anti-government protests that erupted in various Cuban cities this July received enormous coverage in the U.S. press. But most of the coverage either underplayed or failed to mention the critical role played by the U.S. embargo in creating the blackouts and shortages of food and medicines that fueled those protests. Continue reading
History has a funny way of circling back on itself. Continue reading
I had a friend who was a pathological liar. I do not use that term lightly; he really was. We met in college and then through an odd set of circumstances wound up working for the same television station in New York—in fact, our offices were right next door to each other. Continue reading
America has the single worst government in the world. Shut the fuck up about Cuba. Continue reading
As protests erupted in Cuba over shortages of basic necessities, the decades-long illegal U.S. blockade on Cuba was no longer a part of mainstream media narratives. In 2020, media focus was on the Cuban contribution to the fight against Covid19 and how, despite the blockade, Cuba had still managed its internationalist approach, while manufacturing its own vaccines. For a brief period, talk about lifting the illegal blockade on Cuba was also part of the international narrative, even as the medical brigades were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Continue reading
Hostile to what just societies hold dear, establishment media march in lockstep with flagrantly illegal US/Western policies. Continue reading
Nina Turner is very scary—to power brokers who’ve been spending big money and political capital to keep her out of Congress. With early voting underway, tensions are spiking as the decisive Democratic primary race in northeast Ohio nears its Aug. 3 finish. The winner will be virtually assured of filling the seat in the deep-blue district left vacant by Rep. Marcia Fudge when she became President Biden’s HUD secretary. What’s at stake in the special election is whether progressives will gain a dynamic champion in the House of Representatives. Continue reading
It should come as no surprise that among the most avid customers for the Israeli NSO Group’s Pegasus smart phone tracking and surveillance system are some of the world’s most repressive regimes. These include Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and the Saudi/UAE puppet regime representing the largely defunct Yemen Arab Republic. The perfidy of these Arab governments in dealing with the harshest elements of Israel’s government, namely, its military-intelligence complex, goes a long way in explaining why the Palestinian people continue to constitute one of the world’s most persecuted population. Continue reading
Three of the richest billionaires on Earth are now busily spending billions to exit our Earth’s atmosphere and enter into space. The world is watching—and reflecting. Continue reading
A joint report by several media organizations around the world and Amnesty International has revealed that the Israeli intelligence-linked NSO Group has provided an invasive smart phone tracking software known as Pegasus to some of the world’s most brutal regimes to spy on journalists, politicians, and human rights advocates. The conclusions about NSO Group and Pegasus provide addition proof that Israel’s intentions are predominantly malign in the area of intelligence and security operations. Continue reading
WASHINGTON—In late June of this year, New Scientist blandly reported that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had “used a swarm of small drones to locate, identify and attack Hamas militants,” the first documented case of a drone swarm being used in so-called combat. Continue reading
Last Thursday, 39 million American parents began receiving a monthly child allowance ($300 per child under 6, and $250 per child from 6 through 17). It’s the biggest helping hand to American families in more than 85 years. Continue reading
The weirdest thing about the Biden administration tasking itself with the censorship of “disinformation” on social media is that the United States is the hub of a globe-spanning empire that is built upon a foundation of disinformation, maintained by disinformation, and facilitated by disinformation. Continue reading
Kicking life-saving solutions endlessly down the road is the mark of the brutish power of the corporations over the innocents. Continue reading
The United States has a very predictable prelude to any war that it seeks to conduct. The first to fight is the US Treasury, Wall Street, and the economic and financial instruments of US national power. Russia is currently under US sanctions for annexing Crimea and, perhaps, for just existing. A long roster of countries—China, Venezuela, and Iran, for example—and individuals are on the US Treasury sanctions roster, so many that the US might just as well sanction the entire world except for NATO members (maybe that is coming). Continue reading
Empires rise and fall. And usually burn themselves out rather quickly. What else is new? ‘American decline’ is a Wikipedia page. You can feel it in the air. One greets it with dread or hope, or better dread-hope. America’s sins are adding up, yet the US is a behemoth for well over two centuries and will not go in peace. Continue reading
Earlier last week, 100 Afghan families from Bamiyan, a rural province of central Afghanistan mainly populated by the Hazara ethnic minority, fled to Kabul. They feared Taliban militants would attack them in Bamiyan. Continue reading
When the Israeli Knesset (parliament) failed to renew what is commonly referred to as the Family Reunification Law, news reports and analyses misrepresented the story altogether. The even split of 59 MKs voting in favor of the law and 59 against it gave the erroneous impression that Israeli lawmakers are equally divided over the right of Palestinians to obtain permanent residency status or citizenship in Israel through marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading
As the world burns, as ecosystems die off, as the insects vanish, as the forests disappear, as soil becomes rapidly less fertile, as extinction takes over, as the oceans gasp for air and become lifeless deserts while continents of plastic form in their waters, it is interesting how often you hear the sentiment that this is the result of some flaw in humanity for which we all share equal guilt. Continue reading
The right-wing is using the mantra of critical race theory as part of an overall assault on public education’s teaching of critical thinking. The ability of students to question subjective subjects like history, religion, politics, and race relations lies at the heart of the right’s attempt to wipe school curricula clean of topics over which they will accept only their biased, bigoted, and incorrect versions. Continue reading
On May 25, 2021, Representative Greogry Meeks, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced an expensive anti-China bill into the House. The Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement Act (H.R. 3524), also known as the EAGLE Act, would commit our tax dollars to dangerous anti-China rhetoric, as well as wasteful and environmentally damaging military training, and an extra $7 billion of our tax dollars to the Department of Defense. Continue reading
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Is Sen. Ed Markey a war hawk in progressive clothing?
His latest China gambit points to yes
Posted on July 27, 2021 by Jodie Evans and RJ Thomsen
On June 8, 2021, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey voted for The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (S. 1260), which calls for increased “combat ready troops” and missile shipments to the Asia-Pacific region and undermines Climate Envoy John Kerry’s climate deal with China. The bill also urges U.S. universities and governments to conduct McCarthyist investigations into Chinese and Chinese American people while appropriating at least $500 Million to fund racist and xenophobic anti-China propaganda. Continue reading →